News !
Last Site Update: 26th July 2010 - Tribute album update
Live at Leeds Deluxe Edition
New from Universal Music is a 2CD release of John's classic concert at Leeds University in 1975. This is the first time that the entire concert has been released since it was originally recorded 35 years ago!
The band are John Stevens and Danny Thomnpson, with Paul Kossoff playing guest guitar on some of the songs. This superb concert is supplemented by additional songs from rehearsals, including much tomfoolery as you would expect and Paul Kossoff attempting to play Danny Thompson's double bass! Outstanding sound quality and deluxe packaging makes it a fantastic release. The tracklisting is-
- May You Never
- Outside In
- Spencer The Rover
- Make No Mistake
- Bless The Weather
- My Baby Girl
- You Can Discover
- Solid Air
CD2
- I'd Rather Be The Devil
- So Much In Love With You
- Clutches
- Mailman
- May You Never (Rehearsal)
- The Message (Rehearsal)
- Outside In (Rehearsal)
- The Man In The Station (Rehearsal)
- Head And Heart (Rehearsal)
- Clutches (Rehearsal)
*Release date has been put back to 6th September. Available to pre-order soon here for £11.99.*
Tribute Album
Work is well underway on a tribute album that will feature many well known artist singing their own interpretations of John's songs. To date the following artists have all confirmed their support. More on the way and will be added as soon as their chosen song has been recorded!
Small Hours - Robert Smith (from The Cure)
Rope Soul'd - The Blackships (Nick McCabe and Simon Jones from The Verve)
Go Down Easy - Beth Orton
Glorious Fool - Clarence Fountain and Sam Butler (Formerly Of The Blind boy's Of Alabama)
Couldn't Love You More - Lisa Hannigan
Sweet Little Mystery - Devendra Banhart
Go Easy - Vetiver
Let The Good Things Come -David Gray
Lay it All Down - Donovan
May You Never - Snow Patrol
John Wayne - Oh My God
Tearing and Breaking - Phil Collins
Head & Heart - Vashti Bunyan
Solid Air - Skye Edwards (Morcheeba)
Over The Hill -Ted Barnes featuring Gavin Clark (Clayhill and Unkle)
I Don't Want to Know - The Swell Season
Dancing - Sonia Dada
Certain Surprise - Sabrina Dinan
Clutches - Foley (Miles Davis bass player)
Angeline - Nicholas Barron
You Can Discover - Cheryl Wilson
It's looking good! Further details as they become available...
Recommended Artist - Dan Arborise
Its not often that we recommend another artist, in fact we’ve never done it before! There’s a first time for everything and Dan Arborise is an artist well worth a listen. Inspired guitar work, heartfelt lyrics and beautiful vocals abound on his debut album Around In Circles and 2009s Of Tide and Trail.
Everything You've Been Taught To Love Is A Lie
(taken from the CD Around in Circles)
Around in Circles and Of Tide and Trail are both available in our online shop here.
BBC Live in Concert
Time to rediscover this 2CD release of classic John performances for the BBC?
Four solo acoustic songs from 1971, another three from 1977 and then five performed with his band in 1981, all in superb sound quality courtesy of the BBC and stunningly mixed and mastered by Universal Music!
Further details here.
John Martyn 11th September 1948 - 29th January 2009
With heavy heart and an unbearable sense of loss we must announce that John died on 29th January.
Live in joy, live in love, live in music...
BBC2 TV Mastermind 15th January
Question; Which singer-songwriter who died in January 2009 wrote May You Never which was covered by Eric Clapton on his Slowhand album?
After a long pause...
Answer; Reg Presley?
I can just hear John guffaw and his face contort!! "Agh F~~k em!"
Ain't No Saint 4CD Box Set
This 4CD box set is packed full of previously unreleased songs including the delightful In The Evening, Keep On, Eight More Miles, All For The Love of You, Working It Out as well as live performances from 1973, 1975, 1977, 1986 and many more!
Packaging includes comprehensive sleeve notes and previously unseen photos!
For a full tracklisting please visit our online shop here.
Update on the completion of John's Final Album
Those of you who are frequent visitors to John's website will know that John had been working on a new album, provisionally entitled Willing To Work, for some time now.
John's friends (and producers) Gary Pollitt and Jim Tullio have been hard at work over the last few weeks in Chicago. Seven of nine songs are now mixed with the finishing touches are being made to the last two songs by Gary and Jim. John made his wishes clear on the artistic direction of the album and also on how it was to be released!
It is great news that Willing To Work will be finished by people close to John, that we can be confident that John's wishes will be respected and we will get to hear the album as close as is possible to that which John intended. What does John have to say on the subject? John tells us about the album.
So there you have it from the man himself! Too many songs, a thumbs down to record companies and the album will be released on the net, right here in fact on John's own website, johnmartyn.com! John, "I won't have people telling me what to do!"
Love and friendship or money? An easy answer! Love and friendship win everytime and our thanks go to Gary, Jim, Tonto and others (you know who you are) for the work they have put into completing John's album. We can all look forward to hearing it in the knowledge that it is being sensitively completed and will be released in accordance with John's wishes.
Updates on Willing To Work will be added soon!
Discussion Board
We have added a discussion board for fans to exchange views and talk about all things JM! All comments are moderated so they will not appear instantly, these precautions are in place to ensure integrity and prevent spamming. If the discussion board proves popular it will be here to stay! No web links or advertising please!
Try it out here.
Solid Air Deluxe Edition
Universal Music have announced a 2CD deluxe version of Solid Air is to be released on 25th May 2009. Tracklisting is -
Disc 1 (Remastered original album)
Solid Air
Over The Hill
Don't Want To Know
I'd Rather Be The Devil
Go Down Easy
Dreams By The Sea
May You Never
The Man In The Station
The Easy Blues / Gentle Blues
Disc 2 (Out takes, demo and live)
Solid Air (Alternative Take)
Over The Hill (Alternative Take)
Don't Want To Know (Alternative Take)
I'd Rather Be The Devil (Alternative Take)
Go Down Easy (Alternative Take)
Dreams By The Sea (Alternative Take)
May You Never (Alternative Take)
The Man In The Station (Alternative Take)
The Easy Blues/Gentle Blues (Alternative Take)
Keep On
Never Say Never (Demo)
In The Evening
May You Never (Single Version)
The Easy Blues (Live in Paris)
May You Never (Live in Paris)
I'd Rather Be The Devil (Live in Paris)
Universal Music Press Release, "Compiled, with John Martyn's blessing, by John Hillarby from the official John Martyn website and with sleeve notes by Record Collector's Daryl Easlea, Martyn's landmark album from 1973 has now been digitally remastered and expanded into a two CD set. Disc One contains the original album, considered by many to be his best album, digitally remastered and sounding better than ever. Disc Two contains twelve previously unreleased out-takes, three live tracks and the 7" single version of "May You Never".
Available here.
Investiture at Buckingham Palace
On 27th March Teresa and Mhairi received The Order of the British Empire from the Prince of Wales.
The OBE was awarded to John for services to music and was presented to Teresa and Mhairi during a private audience with The Prince of Wales prior to an Investiture.
Teresa said, "John didn't believe for a while that he had received an OBE. He didn't believe it until he saw it in the papers. But he was thrilled, and was looking forward to coming here to receive it." She added, "Prince Charles knew John's music and liked him and said he was sorry he was not here to receive it himself."
Join John's Facebook group here.
May You Never - The Very Best of John Martyn
A new competitively priced release from Universal Music providing an introduction to John's music. Tracklisting -
May You Never
Solid Air
Bless The Weather
Sweet Little Mystery
Over The Rainbow
Head And Heart
Don't Want To Know
John The Baptist
Over The Hill
Spencer The Rover
Fairy Tale Lullaby
Singin' In The Rain
Couldn't Love You More
Sunshine's Better
Small Hours
Available from our online shop here.
Television and Radio Programmes
The Johnny Too Bad documentary was broadcast again on the BBC4 television channel on 20th, 21st and 22nd March2009. Followed by an Old Grey Whistle Test with Bob Harris introducing John in concert at the Collegiate Theatre, University College London. It's just John, a bottle of beer, his guitar and Echoplex in a trademark concert recorded in 1978. Songs include Couldn't Love You More, Small Hours and May You Never. There was also a BBC Compilation of one hour of John's performances from the BBC archives, starting with the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973 and ending with his last appearance on Later with Jools Holland in 2004.
A great shame that this has not been released by the BBC on DVD, but there are copies out there if you can track one down...
Voiceprint to close One World Label as a mark of respect
Voiceprint have announced that there will be no new releases on John's One World label and that they will not be re-pressing their existing John Martyn releases. This means that when their existing stock is sold all titles will no longer be available.
Rob Ayling, Managing Director and founder of Voiceprint said, "John's passing has come as a great shock. We worked closely together over a number of years to make some of John's less commercial material available to John's fans but it's just not the same now, we will miss John dreadfully and so I've decided to delete our existing catalogue of John Martyn releases as a mark of respect."
Thank you
John's family and friends would like to thank everyone for the overwhelming messages of support and sympathy we have received. Your messages mean so much to us at this difficult time.
A particular thank you to the people of Thomastown who welcomed John with open arms to the their community many years ago, a warm welcome that John greatly appreciated and enjoyed, making many new friends. If you find yourself in Southern Ireland be sure to visit Thomastown and enjoy their hospitality.
Service to celebrate John's Life
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