Wonderful performance of Coudn’t Love You More from 1978 on the multimedia video page, DVD available here. Don’t forget to check out the multimedia audio page, the player can be minmised (click on the icon just above ‘hide playlist’) so you can listen whilst you browse the website!

The Island Years

To whom do you recommend, with a straight face, an 18-disc box set? “Everyone”. Okay, thanks, that was easy.

Seriously, though, the truly-beyond-brilliant Mr lain McGeachy has historically gotten the short end of the stick when people speak of the British Folk Boom of the late ’60s and early ’70s. Nick Drake casts a very long shadow, and not just because of his imposing height. Martyn, were he here, would suggest that that is fair and just. I say no. I idolise Drake, yet I cannot think of him without thinking of John Martyn, and vice versa, even though their individual styles were very different.

A ‘new’ old review of Grace And Danger from NME…

Johnny So Good

HIGH above the ground clutter of the mainstream and well away from the gaudy, jerrybuilt homes of rock folly and fashion, there are musicians who know their own worth and who have convinced enough people of it over the years to both support themselves and retain the interest of a record company. As a result they’re not so put upon by the pressures that conspire to bring down so many of their more ‘successful’ peers, and their music tends to evolve in an unhurried, organic sort of way; it also wears very well, sounding as fresh now as it did when first conceived. John Martyn is one such musician.

Q Magazine review the 18 disc Island Years box set.

TURMOIL SPILL

Mammoth boxset charting the uncompromising highs and harrowing lows of the folk pioneer.

In January 2009, shortly after receiving an OBE for services to music, the former lain McGeachy died of pneumonia and kidney failure, aged just 60. With his prodigious capacity for drink and drugs (his heroin and acid periods ran concurrently), the car crash which fractured his neck and the burst cyst which led to his right leg being amputated below the knee, it’s a wonder John Martyn made it that far.

The contents of the forthcoming box set have been unveiled by Universal Music! And what a superb release this is!

Order here!

Live at The Hanging Lamp Vinyl Release

Some of the content discovered for the Island Years box set is simply too good to confine to CD! Live at The Hanging Lamp was recorded on 8th May 1972 in the tiny crypt of St. Elizabeth’s Church just off Richmond Hill in London.

The atmosphere was tremendous and after playing his acoustic guitar John then ‘plugs in’ and delights the small audience with outstanding electric performances of Sugar Lump and experimental versions of I’d Rather Be The Devil and Outside In. The Hanging Lamp will be released on 180 gram vinyl on 30th September. Order your copy here.

The Island Years – Limited Edition Box Set

The track listing for the forthcoming John Martyn box set has finally been announced and makes for some very exciting reading!

It features over 120 tracks that have never been out before, 29 more on CD/DVD for the first time and 4 songs that have never, ever, been heard before. A 33 track DVD (NTSC Region O) completes this superb package which is accompanied by a 120 page hard back book, press kit, 1978 tour programme and poster! This amazing box is a strictly limited edition worldwide!

Release date 30th September 2013, pre-order here!

JOHN MARTYN – THE ISLAND YEARS

DISC ONE – LONDON CONVERSATION and THE TUMBLER

London Conversation  (1967)
01: Fairy Tale Lullaby ( 2:49 )
02: Sandy Grey ( 2:23 )
03: London Conversation ( 2:40 )
04: Ballad of An Elder Woman ( 2:41 )
05: Cocain ( 2:55 )
06: Run Honey Run ( 2:35 )
07: Back To Stay ( 3:27 )
08: Rolling Home ( 5:42 )
09: Who’s Grown Up Now ( 4:01 )
10: Golden Girl ( 2:31 )
11: This Time ( 3:05 )
12: Don’t Think Twice ( It’s Alright ) ( 4:12 )