JOHN MARTYN
The Apprentice ESOTERIC
Martyn’s 1990 album, expanded with live tracks and concert footage.
If 1990’s The Apprentice was a landmark for John Martyn, it was primarily because Island Records’ rejection of it even after he had re-recorded it at his own expense marked the end of his two-decade tenure at the label. With hindsight, it’s hard to fathom why they passed on a record later seen as a return to form after some decidedly uneven 80s output, but John Hillarby’s liner notes for this three-CD plus DVD clamshell box reissues are revealing. Apparently,
THE ALBUM SMACKS OF HIS NEW OPTIMISM AT THAT POINT.
the label had designs on re-styling Martyn as the next Chris Rea – a fool’s errand, really, given his notorious recalcitrance and reputation as a stylistic moving target.
Aged almost 40, and entering a period of brief, relative sobriety, Martyn had started swimming again and was singing better than he had in a while. The Apprentice smacks of his new optimism at that point, and even if it’s audibly very much the product of its time, the emerging tech is used with great subtlety and musicality. Martyn also had a crew of extremely able musicians in tow, including sometime Dire Straits and Talk Talk percussionist Danny Cummings, saxophonists Andy Sheppard and Colin Tully (the latter had earlier scored the soundtrack to Bill Forsyth’s acclaimed romantic comedy Gregory’s Girl), and bassist Dave Taif-Ball, who had played with Steve Hackett and Colosseum.
A free-flowing, percussion-rich cracker audibly influenced by both The Blue Nile (Martyn was a fan of the Glaswegian trio) and his beloved jazz saxophonist hero Pharoah
Sanders, the album’s title track, inspired by a Sellafield nuclear plant worker Martyn met in a pub, still sounds impressive. Lithe opener Live On Love and the filmic, synth driven Send Me One Line, meanwhile, reflect the fact that Martyn was embarking on a new romance. Indeed, he was so loved-up that he forgot to file the latter (which was penned to order for the film version of bookseller romance
84 Charing Cross Road) on time, hence it didn’t make the film’s final cut.
Other highlights included the Foss Patterson-penned
Patterns In The Rain, with its delicate nylon-string guitar, and expansive, spacious gem The River, which evokes Gerry Rafferty circa City To City. Elsewhere, two bonus CDs of live material drawn from a contemporaneous, 11-night stint at London’s Shaw Theatre are electrifying, and star guest David Gilmour features in 80-odd minutes of DVD footage from the same run, guesting on John Wayne, Look At The Girl and the sublime title track from Martyn’s 1977 album One World. “There’s some freak onstage!” says Martyn, announcing the Floyd legend. Cheeky, eh?