The 22nd Cambridge Folk Festival was held over the weekend of Friday 1 August to Sunday 3 August 1986 at Cherry Hinton Hall.
John was accompanied by Danny Thompson and played on Friday evening at 915pm on Main Stage One and then again on Saturday on Main Stage Two at 745pm.
John was a replacement for Redgum who were unable to appear at the Festival and a small Special Announcement in the programme stated, “SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT – Due to unforeseen circumstances, Redgum are unable to appear at this year’s Festival, and we apologise for any disappointment this may cause. However, we have replaced Redgum with a rare reunion appearance of John Martyn with Danny Thompson – see centre pages for performance times.”
A short biography and photo was included in the pocket sized programme.
John Martyn and Danny Thompson were inseparable and worked together for seven years, and stories of their performances, exploits and influence are legend.
John Martyn was born into a Scots musical family and spent the majority of his childhood in Glasgow. His first foray with the guitar was at I4 and, on leaving school at 17, he joined the local folk scene under the watchful eye of Hamish Imlach. Throughout the mid sixties John’s musical ideas were forming and under the influence of people like Clive Palmer, of Incredible String Band fame, and the music of Davey Graham, Snooks Eaglin and the black musicians of the Stax and Chess labels. This opened the door to the meld of gaelic music, with blues, country and rock ‘n’ roll. Since these early days John has chalked up success with his personal appearances and recordings, why only last year he was here with his band and wow!
Danny Thompson comes from Devon and his early musical recollections are of trad-jazz and blues via the recordings of George Lewis and Big Bill. Danny had a crack at mandolin, guitar and then tea chest bass and settled for a real bass at the age of 16. Since then Danny has achieved fame via the work of the Tubby Hayes Quartet, Alexis Korner Blues Incorporated and Pentangle. There’s hardly anybody in the music game that Danny hasn’t played with, so let’s not dwell on a list, suffice it to say Britains best bassist.
Since this duo parted people haven’t stopped asking them to play together again so here in Martyn’s 20th anniversary year, a rare reunion appearance – John Martyn and Danny Thompson. A coup!!
Friday Main Stage One
Saturday Main Stage Two
