The adulation was plain grotesque, though, and proved that the audience was as lazy as the artist. They seemed to be having a rare old time, but even so, they'd have been better off at home listening to Solid Air on their CDs. It certainly wasn't a night worth risking pneumonia for.
John participated in an early episode of Night Network, broadcasted Friday 16 October 1987. John does a 'live set' including an acoustic May You Never. Sting is interviewed by Paul Thompson and Tom Petty by Mick Brown.
01 Sep 1987
The program has 12 pages and is entirely in black and white. It features an itinerary, an anonymous essay Laying the foundations, an illustrated discography, a paragraph on support band Cry No More and another on the available merchandise. Also there's an advert about the Cacophony vinyl rerelease of Live at Leeds. The program carries mainly promo pictures. One interesting picture shows John jamming with Eric Clapton at the Island Birthday party; this must have been the 25th anniversary on July 4th 1987 at Pinewood Studios. The tour lasted through September and October 1987. The title of the album is misspelled Foundation; also the album fails in the discography.
40 minutes
Performance with Danny Thompson.
This was the festival's twentieth anniversary; John and Danny were closing act of the first night.
A previously mail-order only LP recorded live at Leeds University in 1976, in the days when students sprawled on the floor to take in a concert.
14 Nov 1986
Adam Sweeting sees two seasoned performers back in action in London
Two enduring Celts played in London this week, both Sixties veterans who've survived upheavals of taste and style by sticking doggedly to their own version of events. Van Morrison, withdrawn and uncommunicative, filled the Hammersmith Odeon for a couple of nights, while John Martyn, nonchalantly stoned Glaswegian ex-folk singer, came to the Town & Country Club with his six-piece band to record a live LP.
October/ November releases of Island in their 25th year.
Soundtrack for series of seven films on the environment for Tyne Tees Television, presented by David Bellamy. Broadcasted autumn 1986 but the soundtrack was never released due to lack of money.
01 Aug 1986
Last year we had our 21st anniversary and now the Cambridge Folk Festival is heading for its quarter century. I have been associated with it as organiser for the Cambridge City Council for every one of those years - you could say that the Festival and I have, like good wine and good brandy, matured together.
