29 Apr 2026
It's that time of year again: the weekend of June 19th 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
24 Mar 2026
This website runs on a Content Management System that is no longer supported, unfortunately. I was quite happy with Drupal 5, 6 and 7 but from version 8 upward the system has become incomprehensible and unusable for me. In order to keep things tidy and safe I will have to migrate to another platform and this is no small or easy task.
The good news is that a so-called fork has been created for ordinary people and small businesses called Backdrop. During the past few weeks I have been experimenting with this and the future starts looking bright again. So don't be surprised when, in the coming months, strange things start happening on these pages - only natural for anything related to JM after all.
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.
The acclaimed singer and guitarist told a Mayfest audience at Glasgow's Pavilion last night that he had not paid his Poll Tax and that he had received a summons.
Blues
Chapter 22 of the 300 page Free biography tells some nice things about John in relation to the late Paul Kossoff.
Excerpt from chapter 22:
A new album by John Martyn has become a rare enough event these past few years. Too rare, his admirers will say, because Martyn is one of the great figures of modern music, a man of mighty skills, powerful vision and an uncompromising commitment to doing things his way.
Desde 1968 en que publicó sus primeros discos, John Martyn se ha acreditato como un valor sólido de la música pop británica, evolucionando constantemente en el curso de una ejecutoria solvente que ha contado siempre con un firme respaldo popular.
Don't call it folk! John Martyn is 46, but he's not too old to kick up a stink if you dare lump him in with the finger-in-ear brigade. Paul Tingen dons his profanity-proof sou'ester to meet Britain's most eccentric and unique guitar stylist.
Dopo tre anni di silenzio John Martyn pubblica il suo nuovo album, «Grace & Danger»; un disco in cui sono sapientemente filtrate ed amalgamate tutte le sue esperienze, compreso un anno trascorso in Giamaica; una ricca tela i cui colori tessono trame, spazi, luci.
John Martyn was born in 1948 into a Scots musical family of two light opera singers who separated shortly after his birth. Brought up by a close relative, most of his childhood was spent in urban Glasgow: weekends were spent with his father in the countryside and yearly holidays were spent on houseboats with his mother in the South of England.
John Martyn opened the evening with a set of acoustical blues, the most interesting being The Weather,
"Since the incident with the leg, I've not been able to get about too well, so I've put on quite a bit of weight," he says. "Still, I've had a couple of suits made, so I should look the part."
