Bless The Weather

I'm still not sure how it happened but yesterday morning I was able to download, via Google Play, the new John Martyn box set, The Island Years - for £1.27. That's 259 tracks across 17 CDs, something of a bargain. I noticed a couple of tweets suggesting that Play.com, Google Play and a couple of other download retailers were offering the box set, which is on Amazon at over £150, for less than the price of a pint. 

I assumed that it was one of those periodic listing errors by the website which would prove to be null and void in the event, but no, all tracks duly arrived and I'm now listening to Bless The Weather, one of many John Martyn albums I've never heard. I've previously stuck to what I assumed was pretty safe territory with him - Solid Air, One World, and Live At Leeds, that's it. 



By the time I got to see John Martyn live, it was 2007 and he'd had his legs amputated and cut a slightly befuddled figure, clearly seeking direction from bandmates about set list etc, but when he sat and played he was mesmerising. Here's a link to the first part of the BBC documentary from a few years ago, which was interesting enough but gave little clue about the real person.