John Martyn
64 articles
Free articles
Interview by Andy Childs, ZigZag, March 1977
ONLY SIX WEEKS or so gone, and already it looks as if 1977 is going to be a cracker of a year for rock music! ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, September 2004
Two-CD set of mainly live jazz-folk genius from the early ‘70s to the mid-‘90s, with bonus DVD interview from last year. ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Chris Smith, Rock's Backpages Audio, June 1998
We start with Smith's second attempt at interviewing Martyn: the Scottish bard on his covers album The Church of the One Bell; on starting out as a musician; on his influences such as Davey Graham and the impressionist composers; on writing 'Solid Air' for (and about) Nick Drake. Following that, we present Smith's first attempt at the interview, in which a soused Martyn slurs about impressionism, drink and religion, and tells incomprehensible jokes.
File format: mp3; file size: 38.2mb, interview length: 39' 49" sound quality: ** (phoner)
Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages Audio, October 2005
Martyn looks back to his youth in the UK folk scene; his hero Davey Graham; Roy Harper; his "health problems"; his folk-jazz fusion, and playing with Harold McNair; living in Woodstock; Bless the Weather, using an Echoplex, and 'Glistening Glyndebourne'; slurring his vocals; his bass player Danny Thompson, and still touring and recording in 2005...
File format: mp3; file size: 30mb, interview length: 31' 12" sound quality: ** (phoner)
List of articles in the library
Is John Martyn Still A Folk Singer Or Not?
Report and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Melody Maker, 28 February 1970
THIS IS A TOTALLY irrelevant question, and one which I'm glad I didn't bother to ask. For in this age of musical categories, John draws ...
Profile and Interview by uncredited writer, Beat Instrumental, May 1970
JOE BOYD has been responsible for bringing to our attention a number of brilliant musicians. People don't talk much about 'discovering' artists these days, but ...
Profile and Interview by Rosalind Russell, Disc and Music Echo, 1 December 1971
JOHN MARTYN's family are very proud of him. And to show that they are, they travel great distances to see him when he does big ...
John Martyn: Solid Air (Island)
Review by Andrew Means, Melody Maker, 3 March 1973
HOW DO you begin to describe a guitarist as sensitive and accomplished as John Martyn? Every new album expands one's appreciation of his ability. ...
John Martyn: The Stormbringer Comes Into The Sun
Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 21 July 1973
"Love me with your head and heart.Love me from the place it starts;Love me from your head and heart.Love me like a child." ...
John Martyn: Inside Out (Island)
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 29 September 1973
YOU COULD SAY that the post-decadence rock scene is structured rather like the society of ants: a hangover of old drones twittering away behind last ...
Fire and Water: The Elemental, Avant-Garde John Martyn
Comment by Dave Laing, Let It Rock, 1 December 1973
1967: "SO THERE I WAS on this barge on the river wearing nothing but denims and a smile…" so runs the sleeve note on London ...
Interview by Andy Childs, ZigZag, April 1974
BARD BON-VIVEUR BULLSHITTER DOPER ENTERTAINER EXPLORER GUITARIST HERO HOBO LEGEND LOVER MINSTREL MUSICIAN PATHFINDER PERFORMER PICKER PIONEER PISSARTIST PLAYER POET RACONTEUR RAMBLER RHYMER ROMANCER SINGER ...
Review by Andy Childs, ZigZag, March 1975
FOR ME, THE release of a new John Martyn album is always among the most noteworthy events of the year. ...
John Martyn: Imperial College, London
Live Review by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 15 March 1975
YES, THAT'S right, "Koss" turned up for the final couple of numbers. ...
Procol Harum, John Martyn: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 18 March 1975
Joyless: Last Concert at the Rainbow ...
Interview by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 12 July 1975
March 2020 Note: At the time, I took his final comments as being just a rough Glaswegian joke. Unfortunately, it seems it was no more ...
Danny Thompson: Man of Many Parts
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 21 February 1976
THE NEWS that Danny Thompson is getting back into jazz will please the many who have missed the big, fat tone of his bass during ...
John Martyn: Blood, Sweat And Cheers
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 5 March 1977
JOHN MARTYN rivets attention performing. You'd be wrong in assuming that just because he's one-man-with-a-guitar he doesn't make every crevice of the stage swing. ...
John Martyn: This Man Is A Walking, Playing Bag of His Own
Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 24 December 1977
"ACTUALLY," ADMITS John Martyn, as he gives in to one of the great groundswells of spluttering, infectious laughter that carry along his speech, "I see ...
John Martyn: One World (Island)
Review by Steven X Rea, Crawdaddy!, April 1978
JOHN MARTYN'S music is a blur of blues and jazz and rock: Bessie Smith's emotiveness, Hoagy Carmichael's mellowness, Skip James' growl and bellow, and Martyn's ...
John Martyn: London School of Economics, London
Live Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 18 November 1978
YOU DON'T need me at all – you know what happened, what will happen. ...
Profile and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 29 November 1980
After the breakdown of his marriage, John Martyn spent seven months on a complete bender, but the result of that desperation was his finest album for years. Nick Kent ...
John Martyn: Martyn's Identity Papers
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 6 December 1980
ACCORDING to the official biog, John Martyn was born in New Malden, Surrey, but was brought up for the first 15 years of his life ...
At Home With The Stars Special: So Tell Us Phil, How Do You Feel About Solo Success?
Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 21 March 1981
The remarkable Mr. Collins stays awake long enough to cure NICK KENT of his insomnia. ...
John Martyn: Making Tracks to the Top
Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 23 May 1981
John Martyn, in concert in London tonight, has been a cult figure for far too long. Now he plans to change all that, as Mick ...
Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 26 May 1981
WITH A NEW four-piece band and a new record contract behind him, John Martyn is clearly hoping to translate his loyal cult following into something ...
Interview by Peter Murphy (British), International Musician & Recording World, September 1981
JOHN MARTYN gets filed under M for Miscellaneous when it comes to the mainstream categories of popular music. His eclectic style has taken in traditional ...
Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, October 1981
DRINKING CHAMPAGNE and orange juice, a belated present for his 33rd birthday two days previously, the bright-faced John Martyn flails every way about his end ...
John Martyn: Glorious Fool (WEA k99178)
Review by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 3 October 1981
JOHN MARTYN'S twelfth album, his first with Warners and his first with a band. The glorious fool continues to go his own way with little ...
Review by Danny Baker, New Musical Express, 4 September 1982
I LIVE WITH THE constant nagging worry that my house will soon burn down. ...
Live Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 30 October 1982
John Martyn: Hammersmith Odeon, London ...
Interview by Hugh Fielder, Sounds, 13 November 1982
"SO SOUNDS think I'm an old hippie, do they?" muses John Martyn as we stand in the hotel lobby waiting for the limo (the manager's ...
John Martyn: Philentropy (Body Swerve)
Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 3 December 1983
THERE ARE those – and they are many in today's athletic Popular-hypertrophic music field – who can impress a vocal line upon a certain heavily ...
John Martyn: Tha Man Who Put The Sap In Sapphire
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 22 December 1984
COSMIC JOHN MARTYN at the Dominion a fortnight ago was the first time I’d seen this beer-swilling beat hippie since I snuck in the back ...
Sade: Diamond Life (Portrait); John Martyn: Sapphire (Island)
Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, May 1985
JEWELS 'N' JAZZ ...
Review by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 8 March 1986
ONLY A HEARTLESS bastard would knock old John. I mean. 20 years of love-drugged poetry, dedicated to ideal earth mothers, cossetted in an Arcadian atmosphere ...
John Martyn: Starting again at the bottom
Report and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, Sunday Correspondent, 18 March 1990
TWO YEARS AGO, after Island Records rejected his last LP; John Martyn entered a "black period" that lasted six months. In an alcoholic haze, he ...
Interview by Mark Cooper, Q, May 1990
Sober, wiser, more than a little weather-beaten, John Martyn hassurvived 20 turbulent booze-fuelled years pursuing a romantic image ofthe lone folk troubadour. But the "rebel ...
John Martyn: Couldn't Love You More (Permanent CD9)
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, April 1993
JOHN MARTYN has roamed his own byways, apparently lost in a mythic search whose obstacles were all his own devising — only he knew the ...
Book Excerpt by Mark Cooper, 'Love is the Drug' (Penguin), 1994
HE'S A JAZZ MAN, he's a folkie and he's been a drinker. Singer songwriter John Martyn has been most things, apart from commercially acceptable. Now ...
John Martyn: The Boy Can't Help It
Interview by Nick Coleman, MOJO, October 1994
Rambunctious loons, Soave-swilling romantics, tireless anarchists, people who fill baths with dead fish, all detect in him some sort of kindred spirit. John Martyn by ...
Review by Mark Cooper, MOJO, August 1996
ONE OF THE GREAT maverick stylists of British music, John Martyn has been out on a limb in recent years, marooned first by some increasingly ...
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, September 1996
HE MAY be 30 years "in the business", 25 albums down the line, and possessed of all the fans his idiosyncratic body of work is ...
John Martyn: Felling Gravity's Pull
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, June 1998
After rising to prominence with the late 60s electric folk renaissance, John Martyn uprooted songform and subjected it to a serious sonic makeover on a ...
John Martyn: Glasgow Walker/Classics
Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, July 2000
30th-odd album plus old song collection from Glaswegian songwriter. ...
Retrospective by David Stubbs, Uncut, December 2000
DAVID STUBBS SWOONS OVER THAT POIGNANT PRECURSOR OF TRIP HOP, JOHN MARTYN'S SOLID AIR ...
Interview by Dan Gennoe, 7, 21 February 2001
She's the first lady of house, he's a living folk legend. She likes gospel, he likes jungle. They are the odd couple and they're taking ...
John Martyn: NTL Studio, Waterfront Hall, Belfast
Live Review by Colin Harper, The Irish Times, 28 February 2001
JOHN MARTYN MADE some very beautiful and distinctive acoustic-based records in the '70s, most notably Solid Air –reputedly a "chillout" fave for today's clubby types. ...
John Martyn: The Lowry, Salford
Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 8 May 2004
IF JOHN MARTYN hadn't become a folk/blues/rock legend, he could have knocked out a career as a mimic. At one point, he perfectly impersonates Alf ...
The Gentlest Circus: One World
Sleeve notes by Daryl Easlea, Universal/Island Records, Fall 2004
YOU WOULD THINK one of the last characters to survive the supposed punk rock cull of 1976/77 would be John Martyn. To outsiders, he was ...
John Martyn: I've Had a Wonderful Time
Report and Interview by Graeme Thomson, The Herald, November 2005
IT IS FAR from unusual to discover whole fathoms of deep blue sea between the artist and their art. Nothing, however, quite prepares you for ...
Interview by Mat Snow, MOJO, August 2006
THERE AREN'T too many singers who've been shot, stabbed, burst their pancreas, and had their right leg amputated at the knee. Fewer still whose career ...
There's mystery in the air as John Martyn revives a classic
Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 7 September 2006
FOR AN ALBUM that had no noticeable commercial impact here when it first appeared in February 1973, John Martyn's Solid Air has enjoyed a remarkable ...
John Martyn: The Barbican, London
Live Review by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 17 September 2006
"Burble burble burble... President Bush... flffle mffle wffle... 'kin 'ell... urgle wurgle gurgle... I'm trouble too! Heheheheheh..." ...
Interview by Johnny Black, R2/Rock'n'Reel, August 2008
All my life I've thought of you as Scottish but you were actually born in England weren't you? ...
Ain't No Saint: 40 Years Of John Martyn
Sleeve notes by Daryl Easlea, Island Records, September 2008
"Love finds a way, just let it stay From day to day, just let it flow, just let it grow It will get you together ...
John Martyn: Still Wide-Eyed and Increasingly Legless
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2008
INTERVIEWS ARE like minefields. Amidst the chummy showbiz chat, there's almost invariably at least one potential hair-trigger moment when someone like me has to ask ...
Review and Interview by Rob Young, Uncut, October 2008
Outtakes and unreleased live recordings shine new light on the angels and demons at war in a 40-year career. ...
May we never forget the genius of John Martyn
Obituary by Pete Paphides, The Times, 30 January 2009
FOR MANY MUSIC fans, one lingering image of John Martyn, the British singer-songwriter who has died at the age of 60, remains preserved in the ...
Empire of the Sun: Island at 50
Retrospective and Interview by Tom Doyle, Q, June 2009
The grand scheme of a gambler with a taste for chicken blood, Jamaican label Island Records introduced Bob Marley and U2 to the world. On ...
Review by David Cavanagh, Uncut, October 2010
Previously unreleased document of 1975 concert in its entirety. ...
Review by Graeme Thomson, Uncut, June 2011
IN LATE 2006 I interviewed John Martyn in the beer garden of his local in Thomastown, Kilkenny. In between bombing pints of cider laced with ...
John Martyn: One World... One John
Film/DVD/TV Review by Laura Barton, The Word, April 2012
A new John Martyn film is well-intentioned and clearly created with love — but falls short of the grand setting he deserves. ...
Solid Air: John Martyn and Nick Drake
Report and Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 10 November 2013
JOHN MARTYN and Nick Drake have just tipped up backstage at an Oxford College Commemorative Ball. It is 1973. The older, newly-successful man, Martyn, is ...
see also John and Beverley Martyn
back to LIBRARY
