30 Jul 1998
It's safe to say that no one has pushed the realm of the singer/ songwriter/ guitarist farther than Scotsman John Martyn. Beginning in the late '60s, his musical muse has taken him from acoustic, jazz-tinged folk to trance blues and echo-filled, electric mantras, before settling into an evolved, radio-friendly fusion of blues- and jazz-based pop. Despite a lack of recognition, Martyn ranks as one of music's truly unique 'voices'.
02 Apr 1998
ON APRIL 8 the great John Martyn plays a very special gig al The Quays. Martyn, one of the most gifted and brilliantly original singer/songwriter/musicians in contemporary music, has had an extraordinary career since he first gave notice in the early 70s that he wasn't prepared to be lied down to any particular conception of music by attaching fuzzbox, echoplex and phase-shift to his acoustic guitar. Purists beware!
12 Jan 1998
CODEVILLA. Alla soglia dei cinquant'anni John Martyn non ha ancora perso il gusto di suonare: il chitarrista inglese che si merita un posto nella storia del rock si esibisce stasera, alle 22:30, al Thunder Road accompagnato dalla sua Electric Band. Per Martyn si tratta di un ritorno in Italia, a quindici anni di distanza dal suo precedente concerto: pochissime le date che il suo tour europeo prevede nel nostro Paese.
01 Nov 1996
Mention Folk-Rock to an American and you're going to conjure up visions of Roger McGuinn with a Rickenbacker and granny glasses performing 'Mr Tambourine Man,' or maybe Dylan and the Band being booed at Newport. Use the same phrase in England and it's a different kettle of fish altogether. Bob who? Roger what? Over there it's the real stuff, Fairport and Steeleye, and the crowning glory known as Electric Folk, when the traditional ballad met the 1960s and 70s, and everyone came away happy.
01 Sep 1996
FROM 1967, ISLAND WAS AT THE CENTRE OF THE PROGRESSIVE ROCK MOVEMENT. IN THE FIRST PART OF A SERIES, STUART PENNEY & CHRIS SAVAGE RELIVE THE CLASSIC PINK LABEL YEARS, WHICH INTRODUCED THE WORLD TO JETHRO TULL, FREE AND KING CRIMSON.
02 Aug 1996
THE Republic
Millstreet Music Fair, Cork, Sunday
The line-up for this one-day event in the spacious Green Glens Arena has something for nearly everybody, from full-blooded celtic soul brothers Van Morrison and Shane MacGowan to the glittery contemporary pop of The Corrs and the camp shenanigans of Bono's buddy Gavin Friday.
04 Jan 1996
Hamish Imlach, who has died aged 55, was a movable feast. Wherever he was became quickly the center of a party, marked by uproarious laughter, the consumption of copious draughts of any available beverage, and the cooking and demolition of exotic foods.
23 Jun 1995
SOME alliances are just too brain-achingly bizarre to get a grip on.
For example, in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Robert de Niro played opposite Richard Briers.
Surely that couldn't really have happened. Gerry Adams sitting down for a cosy chat with Patrick Mayhew? Fair enough. Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat involved in a bit of cosy parley over tea and crumpet? Yeah, why not. But Travis Bickle meets Tom out of The Good Life? Truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction.
05 Feb 1995
The body of a Sioux chief is to be returned to his tribal homelands, after lying in a Brompton cemetery for 103 years. Do you care where you are buried?
01 Dec 1994
One of the classic singer/songwriters and musicians of the last thirty years, John Martyn, will play two exclusive gigs at Roisin Dubh on Monday and Tuesday, December 5th and 6th. If you haven't got a ticket by now, then it's time to start hustling because those on sale after the gigs were announced sold out in a record-breaking two hours. That's the kind of reputation John Martyn has.
