21 May 2025
It's that time of year again: mid-June there will be a John Martyn Summer Gathering, at the Mickleton Village Hall (Barnard Castle, county Durham). Prepare for a few days of pleasant company and talented musicians. More info in the John Martyn Group on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/JohnMartynGroup
06 Jan 2025
Happy new year first of all.
Two things have changed on the One World website.
First of all I closed down the X-account associated with it and killed all Twitter functionality. It was hardly used anyway and I will not be associated with the political activities the owner of the platform has recently been unfolding.
Then I decided to close the Guestbook because people were not using this channel any more. It was mainly causing trouble as it was getting increasingly difficult to fight thousands of comment spam entries from Russia, per week (!).
Apart from this, I will try to keep these pages online and up to date.
04 Aug 2024
For the people who did not get their hands on Neil Ardley's Harmony Of The Spheres: a small record company from Chichester, Analogue October Records, are preparing a high quality vinyl rerelease of the album. Licensed from Decca, remastered/ remixed from the original master tapes and pressed in Germany.
Originally the release was planned for 15 November 2024, then there were some problems with the test pressings. The release was pushed back, initially to December 20 and the estimate is now February 8. The price is totally audiophile. So it might be worth the effort to look for second hand CD's or older LP's that might come on the market this spring.
31 May 2024
Gibson guitars owned by the late guitarist and singer John Martyn are expected to fetch up to £50,000 each when they go under the hammer this summer.
20 Jul 2022
While searching for an old concert in Barnstaple, I stumbled upon a remark by DJ Wendy May: "After extensive touring and some John Peel sessions they eventually signed to Phonogram and made an album in 85, which featured the legendary John Martyn on guitar." She is referring to a band called the Boothill Foot-Tappers. They made exactly one album that surfaced October 1985: Ain't That Far From Boothill. It was released by Mercury (MERH 76) and John is indeed credited for Guitars on a track called Stand Or Fall (side B, track #3).
No idea why this track was never mentioned in the older discographies before. It has been included here in the Collaborations section and I also found a review.
13 Nov 1982
War hero Thomas McGeachy lived with danger long after he hung up his rifle. But the 64-year-old ex-commando was blissfully unaware of the potentially-explosive situation for 40 years.
It's that time of year again: mid-June there will be a John Martyn Summer Gathering, at the Mickleton Village Hall (Barnard Castle, county Durham). Prepare for a few days of pleasant company and talented musicians. More info in the John Martyn Group on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/JohnMartynGroup
Sounds around town
Pop Album of the Week: John Martyn: Foundations (Island).
Charles Mingus and a Scottish folksinger on the same bill? Okay, the billing seems somewhat unlikely, to put it mildly. Except it really isn't all that outlandish.
"I like the idea of a video that wasn't a concert, and the lads backstage," notes a comfortably overstuffed John Martyn from a similarly overstuffed armchair. "That's Spinal Tap stuff."
Offbeat with R.S. Murthi
IT TAKES more than eccentricity and great talent for an artist to become a cult figure in the pop jungle. He needs raw guts, a great deal of staying power and a determination to stick it out through thick and thin. And if he's thinking of turning into a tycoon by offering his egotistical effusions for mass consumption, he had better start digging his own grave...
Not exactly a rosy picture, is it? Willy-nilly, that's what achieving cult status entails. But you have to give credit to the artist who couldn't care what the majority of the goddamn world might think of him for resignedly playing to a dedicated following.
There were few musicians during the 1970s who seem as comfortable with the role of the naive, introspective singer-songwriter as Scottish folk artist John Martyn. Sensitive, with a mellow vocal and writing style that tends more towards matters spiritual than temporal, Martyn appeared the archetypal folksinger for most of his 13-year career.
"SOME OF THE happiest moments of my playing life were on stage with John... He was unique and he had a big heart. He was one of a kind." That was friend, occasional producer, and fan, Phil Collins, remembering John Martyn who died in 2009.
Words Ciarán Tracey
The Road To Ruin, on the other hand, shows Martyn emerging as a more distinctive talent, and marked the beginning of his fascination with jazz, which has played a large part in his subsequent career.
Edinburgh Festival: Reports by Stuart Hoggard, Ian MacDonald
Front Row Reviews
John Martyn has now spent 23 years ignoring fashion; a veteran post-hippy bluesmith whose followers seem willing to die for him, he appeared swathed in moody lighting singing about sweet love, sweet little mysteries, fishermen, and other long-haired concerns.
