Effortless stuff from Slowhand himself!

Eric Clapton – Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – Live Old Grey Whistle Test 1978

Talking Heads – Psycho Killer – Old Grey Whistle Test 1978

In a career that spanned forty years he released no less than twenty-one studio albums.

John Martyn signed to Chris Blackwell’s Island Records label in 1967 and released his first album London Conversation, which includes a cover version of Bob Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright.

There is one album that is never far away from my CD player, even thirty-six years after it was originally released.  Solid Air is a beautiful album. Tracks based around one man’s beautifully haunting voice, his acoustic guitar and bass player Danny Thompson.  British folk music with a slice of jazz.  But the album concludes with a live track, I’d Rather Be The Devil where Martyn’s acoustic is replaced by a reverberating echo-chambered electric guitar – nice!

The title track Solid Air was written about his friend and Island Records artist Nick Drake, who sadly died in 1974 of an accidental overdose of prescribed anti-depressants; and nowhere more does John Martyn’s voice and guitar picking sound more like Drake than on Go Down Easy.  But my favourite John Martyn track is the wonderful, May You Never.

Solid Air was a commercial success, but John Martyn was continually looking for new paths to tread.  In 1977 he released the album One World including collaboration on Big Muff with legendary dub reggae producer, Lee “Scratch” Perry.

In February 2008 John Martyn received the lifetime achievement award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk awards; and to commemorate John Martyn’s 60th birthday last September, Island Records released a 4 CD compilation titled Ain’t No Saint.

Here’s John Martyn performing May You Never on The Old Grey Whistle Test from 1973.

Prefab Sprout – When Love Breaks Down

The Room was an indie pop band from Liverpool in the 1980’s that got lost along with The Pale Fountains and The Bodines as they attempted to crossover from indie chart cult status and commerical pop success.

Shirt Of Fire is my favourite track from The Room; and this performance on The Whistle Test was, as far as I’m aware their one and only national television appearance.

This live performance on the BBC music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1982 is truly awesome. It was such an odd site to see a person in a wheelchair performing on a music show; and his voice was so fragile and sincere.  I fell in love with Wyatt’s music there and then and bought the album Nothing Can Stop Us soon after.

Shipbuilding was written by Elvis Costello; a song inspired by the Falklands War.  Robert Wyatt had become very political around this period and become a member of the British Communist Party.

Robert Wyatt began his music career as a drummer in the 1960’s progressive rock group, Soft Machine, along with Daevid Allen and Kevin Ayres.

In 1973 his career as a drummer came to a sudden end after falling drunk from a third floor window.  He became paralysed from the waist down.

Here is one of the most powerful performances both Annie Nightingale and I ever saw on The Old Grey Whsitle.  Public Image Limited, PiL at their very very best performing Careering & Poptones in 1980.

Johnny Rotten was still known as John Lydon and his wonderful lyrics and vocal delivery are accompanied by the throbbing bass of Jah Wobble and the screeching synthesizer stabs and flanged guitar chaos of the brilliant Keith Levene.

Without Levene and Wobble John Lydon and Pil were nowhere near the force of the first two albums.

PiL performed Careering and Poptones on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1980 to promote their second album, Metal Box.

This performance is from the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1976.

Janis Ian – At Seventeen

For a short period of time the politically motivated Marxist-Leninist group Gang Of Four produced some great music while signed to EMI, the largest capitalist record company in the world.  Unfortunately, their first album, Entertainment was by far there best and for me, they never quite lived up to expectations after that.

Here is a great live UK TV performance of Gang Of Four on The Old Grey Whistle Test performing one of their best tracks, To Hell With Poverty.  I still love the sound of Andy Gill’s guitar.  Unfortunately the clip cuts short but I can’t find a better version.  I also remember a great live performance of We Live As We Dream, Alone on The Tube.  Has anybody got a clip of this they can post?