Saturday 8th June

John Martyn emerged in the late sixties, alongside Nick Drake and Danny Thompson who were both great friends.  He was a brilliant guitarist who played in a bluesy folk style and pushed his guitar sound into almost a drone at times using a fuzzbox and echoplex to create a meandering weaving sound that matched his increasingly blurred vocals.  He had a long and quite tragic career, spiraling into drink and drug abuse and failed relationships.  But the albums kept coming, including ‘Grace and Danger’, an almost painfully autobiographical muse on his life so far.

John went to Jamaica and was greatly influenced by black music, especially reggae and hip hop and the late nineties sounds of Portishead.  He is considered by some to be the true inspiration for much of today’s trip-hop and ambient music.

He kept drinking heavily and became quite ill, having a leg amputated and eventually dying in 2009 of double pneumonia.  But though his music was often incredibly sad and moving, he was apparently great company and seemed to enjoy life, maybe with props.

My favourite albums are the early seventies ‘Bless the Weather’ and ‘Solid Air’ whose title song was a tribute to his friend Nick who had just killed himself.