"...Is This The Moment..."
A wee history for the wee
laddie... Born 11 September 1948 in Surrey, England, but raised from an early
age in Glasgow, Scotland - the 18-year old Iain David McGeachy finally made his
way down to London in the summer of 1967. He busked during the day, slept in
Trafalgar Square at night, got moved on by the fuzz in the morning and
generally got by on a wing and a prayer. Prompted by his first agent, Sandy
Glennon, and based on his love for their Acoustic guitars, he then dropped the i in Martin and replaced it with a far cooler y and wisely became JOHN
MARTYN.
Then propositioned in a UK
folk bar in Kingston, Surrey by producer THEO JOHNSON, he was brought to the
attention of independent label genius CHRIS BLACKWELL. Chris took the equally
wise decision to sign the curly haired troubadour to his wonderful record
label, Island Records (his first white artist signing) and in October 1967
released the mono only ILP 952 (produced by Theo Johnson). It was Martyn's
quietly lovely debut album "London Conversation". Recorded for a
frankly exorbitant £158 in Pye Studios in Marble Arch, and still only a pimply
19, John Martyn was quite rightly hailed by the press and the public as a major
new talent.
Some 14 studio albums later
and especially after the relative failure of the well received but commercially
underachieving "Piece By Piece" from 1986 - folks at Island Records
were in a different mood. His new recordings left them unimpressed and him
without a record label. After a semi-successful stint in the 80ts at Warner
Brothers, the latter half of the decade saw him in the obligatory live-album
wilderness until Martyn then signed to the relatively new Permanent Records in
the UK. And in March 1990 he released "The Apprentice". And that's
where this 2007 'Expanded Edition' remaster comes Rock-Souling in…
UK released 27 August 2007 -
"The Apprentice" by JOHN MARTYN on One World Records OW130CD (Barcode
0604388690527) is an 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue and Remaster that plays out
as follows:
1. Live On Love [Side 1]
2. The River
3. Look At The Girl
4. Income Town
5. Send Me One Line
6. Deny This Love [Side 2]
7. Hole Me
8. Upo
9. The Apprentice
10. The Moment
11. Patterns In The Rain
Tracks 1 to 11 are the album
"The Apprentice" released March 1990 in the UK on LP, MC and CD on
Permanent Records PERM 1 – the LP had 10 tracks and the Side 2 song "The
Moment" was a Bonus on both the MC and CD. All songs are by John Martyn
except “Patterns In The Rain” by Foss Patterson.
JOHN MARTYN – All Vocals and
Guitars
TAJ WYZGOWSKI – Rhythm Guitar
on Tracks 1 and 9
FOSS PATTERSON – Keyboards
ANDY SHEPPARD – Saxophone on
Tracks 3, 5 and 6
COLIN TULLY – Saxophone on
Track 2 and 8
DAVE BALL – Bass on Track 1
ARAN AHMUN – Drums
DANNY CUMMINGS – Percussion
and Backing Vocals
DANUSIA CUMMINGS – Backing
Vocals
BONUS TRACKS:
12. Deny This Love (Remix)
13. The Apprentice (Live)
14. The River (Live)
15. Send Me One Line (Live)
16. Look At The Girl (Live)
The four live tracks feature
Spencer Cozens on Keyboards, Dave Lewis on Saxophone, Alan Thomson on Bass and
Arran Ahmun on Drums. Track 13 first appeared on a CD single in 1990 and Tracks
14, 15 and 16 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED from a 1990 Tour
"The Apprentice" is
not a great John Martyn album, it's a good one and fans will know what that
means. Three or four cracking tracks, while the rest are either OK or no good
at all. What was bad though about the original CD issue was the hugely
underwhelming sound - very dull and compressed. The gatefold slip of paper that
represented the original booklet too wasn't much better either - it barely gave
musician credits and that was it. My original CD is now gold coloured through
corrosion, but it still plays...
The tapes on this 2007 UK
re-issue have been remastered by DALLAS SIMPSON and a nice job he's done too.
It's much better - not spectacularly so but having A/B'd the two - it's
definitely better. The booklet too is improved to 8 pages with extras like
photos of the one CD single that came off the album "Deny This Love",
the lyrics to "Send Me One Line" which was inspired by the '84
Charing Cross Road' book and film and finally, an album history by JOHN
HILLARBY - keeper of the JM flame. But bizarrely enough, One World have
forgotten to include the session men who actually played on it - the one scrap
of info on the original inlay (so I've provided it above).
There are 5 bonus tracks and
are a very mixed bag. Tracks 12 and 13 are the two exclusive songs on the
"Deny This Love" UK CD single from August 1990 (Permanent CD PERM 1).
The Remix of "Deny This Love" drops the awful Acapella beginning and
is very much better for it, while the live version of "The
Apprentice" could best be described as OK only. The last three are
previously unreleased live versions from the 1990 "Apprentice Tour
UK" and are the most disappointing of all. Not performance wise, but soundwise
- they're covered in hiss and sound like they were dubbed off some crinkly old
cassette tape - a real shame because the performances on "Send Me One
Line" and "Look At The Girl" are particularly good. A real
bummer that - and its easy to see why these two and "The River", the
3rd live track, were left in the can up until now.
Highlights on the album
include the beautiful ballad "Send Me One Line" and the equally soft
and lovely album closer, "Patterns In The Rain". One of the great
moments on the 11-track CD album is "The Moment" (a bonus track not
on the vinyl LP) - and it was this I looked forward to hearing most. There's an
acoustic guitar break in it that bursts out of the speakers - and this remaster
has at last given that moment real muscle.
He followed "The Apprentice"
with "Cooltide" in 1992, a much better album I think. I adore John
Martyn and his truly fantastic soulful voice and achingly touching song
writing. He could fart in a bottle and I'd still want to hear it. Try "Send Me One Line", "Hold
Me" or "Patterns" on iTunes and you'll hear what you've been
missing.
PS: One World Records is the
label imprint by VOICEPRINT of the UK dedicated to John Martyn's work. It
features remastered reissues of his albums along with newly discovered titles
from the archives. Titles so far include:
1. "The Apprentice" from 1990, his 1st
album in the UK for Permanent Records, it's original 11 CD tracks have had 5
Bonus Tracks Added (2007 UK release) (REVIEWED ABOVE)
2. "Cooltide", from 1991, his 2nd
album in the UK for Permanent Records - a gem of an album (see SEPARATE REVIEW)
3. "Couldn't Love You More" from 1992,
an album of 15 excellent re-recordings of his Island Label stuff, now
remastered with two bonus tracks added (2007 UK release) (see SEPARATE REVIEW)
4. "No Little Boy" from 1993, an album
of 14 re-recordings covering his career from 1970 up to 1991, now remastered
with 2 bonus tracks (2008 UK release)
5. "One World Records Sampler CD", 14
Tracks, 1 of which is an exclusive live version of "Amsterdam" recorded in Oxford,
October 1982 (available online only)
(2008 UK release)
6. "Live" - a new set with 20 tracks
across 2CDs (2008 UK release)
7. "The Simmer Dim"
– Live Album of Unreleased Material Recorded in Scotland in 1980 (June 2008 UK release)
