Legendary musician and songwriter John Martyn has died in hospital at the age of 60. The announcement was made on his website on Thursday 29th January…
"With heavy heart and an unbearable sense of loss we must announce that John died this morning."
It is believed John succumbed to double pneumonia. We, at Voiceprint are particularly sad as we had a wonderful relationship with this very special artist and we extend our condolences to John's family and friends and of course all his fans.
John who was cited as an influence by musicians such as Bono, Eric Clapton and Kate Bush to name just a few was still performing up until the end of last year and had planned another tour in 2009. Over the years he released many critically acclaimed albums including Solid Air, One World and more recently albums such as Glasgow Walker and On The Cobbles. He was also the subject of a boxed set containing many previously unreleased recordings in 2008 entitled Ain't No Saint.
For the last ten years John Martyn also released a number of archive live albums such as the legendary John Martyn Live recorded at Leeds University in 1975 alongside key studio albums such as The Apprentice and Cooltide. More recently John released the hugely popular DVD The Man Upstairs filmed for German television in 1978. All these releases were on John's own One World label distributed by Voiceprint.
In 2008 John was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award at the Radio 2 Folk Awards. The award was presented to him by his friend Phil Collins who himself worked with John on albums in the early eighties. John was also awarded the OBE in the New Years Honours list in January 2009 for services to music.
Voiceprint MD Rob Ayling said today would be an unbearably sad day:
"I was with John in Newcastle while he was on tour in November 2008 and we were laughing and joking about his OBE and whether he would accept it. He was in great form that night and I shall miss him not only as a musician but also as a friend."
Photograph courtesy of www.johnmartyn.com
