Battle of Medway: July 17th 1973

2007 release of this live set captures him in blistering form, on one of his last ever solo acoustic Folk club gigs. For John Martyn, 1973 was a year of serious transition, both musically and in terms of moving once and for all away from the Folk club scene and into the college and concert circuit. While Live at Leeds, recorded in 1975, has long defined the man's sound during his breakthrough years on the college circuit, little has survived of his path-finding years in the Folk clubs - until now. Recorded in July 1973, in ambient stereo by club organizer Geoff Harden at Medway, Kent, in between the releases of Solid Air and Inside Out, this is the sound of John Martyn - on one of his determinedly last ever Folk club gigs - frightening the living daylights out of anyone who came there expecting 'The Wild Rover'.