Needles and Grooves AoTM /// Vol 52- October 2023 /// John Martyn “ Live at Leeds” 1973

How long will it take @joemac to guess


  • Total voters
    8
  • Poll closed .
On page 5

We have a winner

Congratulations to



@Joe Mac

The album I have picked is …..

John Martyn

“Live at Leeds”

Clue 1 - label clue “island” records most associated with iohn

Clue 2 - post box - live at Leeds was originally a Mail order only album - hand packed with a postcard from John - who buggered off on tour and left his poor old wife to deal with the logistics

Clue 3 - witch season - producer joe Boyd’s company which was sold on to island records eventually

Clue 4 - Chris Blackwell - island records founder and a very nice man

Clue 4.5 - Tomorrow- the bands 1st single produced by Joe Boyd

Clue 5- wizard of oz - John did a cover of somewhere over the rainbow 🌈

Clue 6 - The Legendary Brian Clough - who managed Leeds united in the 70’s - as seen in the brilliant Damned United movie
 
I’ll explain the pick laters

Live at Leeds was always a hard album to find - mail order on island originally - I’ve picked up a decent used 1980’s reissue on the cacophony label - currently a new pressing on DOL -it’s alive album so no need to stress on pressing audiophile concerns - and they seem to be reissuing all of John’s Island albums in batches by universal- his 1st two albums and both with Beverly Martin have come out recently

Loads of CDs on eBay and there was a deluxe 2 cd that also features rehearsals including one with Paul Kossof of Free guesting

I could have picked several Iohn Martyn albums but this live album is absolutely class - the opener Inside Out is 18 mins of awesome , seques into Solid Air his tribute to Nick Drake - the closer I’d rather be the devil dances out the speakers with his echoplex guitar work

It’s criminal how relatively unknown John Martyn is today - so I’m shining a light his way

More to follow when back from Liverpool
 
On page 5

We have a winner

Congratulations to



@Joe Mac

The album I have picked is …..

John Martyn

“Live at Leeds”

Clue 1 - label clue “island” records most associated with iohn

Clue 2 - post box - live at Leeds was originally a Mail order only album - hand packed with a postcard from John - who buggered off on tour and left his poor old wife to deal with the logistics

Clue 3 - witch season - producer joe Boyd’s company which was sold on to island records eventually

Clue 4 - Chris Blackwell - island records founder and a very nice man

Clue 4.5 - Tomorrow- the bands 1st single produced by Joe Boyd

Clue 5- wizard of oz - John did a cover of somewhere over the rainbow 🌈

Clue 6 - The Legendary Brian Clough - who managed Leeds united in the 70’s - as seen in the brilliant Damned United movie
Definitely the John Martyn album I'm most excited to add to my collection. Great live set. Not sure if I'm going for the new pressing or looking for an older one though. Decisions decisions...

Edit: This might be a little harder than I thought. Looks to be out of stock most everywhere. If anyone sees it in stock in the US please post a link.
 
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I’ll put the artist of the month page 2mo morning

I’ll post some background to the album - some other highly recommended Martyn albums and books - he has a great catalogue but the run from Solid Air to One World is mostly superb . He’s a bit of a contrarian character- heavy drinker and later drug user , both loved and despised by many women , but made the most beautiful music , which seems to be sadly falling off the cultural radar - interesting compared to Nick Drake’s trajectory- total opposites but John was one of the few that supported him in life and they were unlikely friends.

I’ll also put some additional Witchseason / Joe Boyd artists up for discussion as it’s a real treasure trove of great music
 
For those hunting this down my copy is this reissue below and is absolutely fine - the original was absolutely a DIY release despatched from Johns home as Island amazingly rejected releasing it

IMG_4996.png
 
Congratulations to @Joe Mac who once again successfully guessed my thread - but took him a bit longer this time - and a few were very very close - the postbox was the vital clue - as this live album was initially a mail order only album direct from the Martyn’s hone

I shall post some stuff up over coming days
 
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