Live at Leeds (Deluxe Edition) was released on 6 September 2010.

For the first time ever the entire concert was released as it was originally recorded on the night.

This superb concert is supplemented by additional songs from rehearsals, including much tomfoolery as you would expect, including Paul Kossoff attempting to play Danny Thompson’s double bass! Outstanding sound quality and deluxe packaging makes it a fantastic release. Not without its surprises though as we discover in the sleeve notes that the original album was not all recorded in Leeds!

John toured extensively in 1975 with Danny Thompson, John Stevens on drums and Paul Kossoff on guitar. A full-blooded and uncompromising concert at Leeds University was recorded with a view to releasing a live album, but Island weren’t keen so John produced, designed and sold “Live At Leeds” mail-order from his Hastings home. Kossoff had been out of the music scene for some time with self-inflicted health problems before John invited him to play. Apparently his playing was so erratic that it had to be cut from the recording.

The limited edition of 10,000 quickly sold out. Many of the albums were numbered and personally signed by John, making this a real collector’s album. Even John himself has no copy, “I sold them all… I was the first of the record independents !”. “It was great. Terribly hard work though…I would never do it again. The only way to do it would be to hire people to take care of everything; it was just too difficult for me and Bev. It didn’t help matters either when there was a three week delay between the time EMI said they’d deliver the albums and the time they actually arrived.”

The album confirmed his reputation as a witty and original stage performer with a wicked line in banter and repartee, and this, coupled with excellent album reviews, was bringing John Martyn the audience that was to stay with him for years to come.

“Live At Leeds is an excellent album… a very honest and straightforward representation (colourful language included) of a typical John Martyn concert at a time when he was accompanied by the excellent Danny Thompson on bass and John Stevens on drums.” (ZigZag 3/77)

Acting as producer and distributor took it’s toll on John and suffering from nervous exhaustion he didn’t play for months after the tour taking a sabbatical for four months in Jamaica whee he was to meet Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry.

CD1

1. May You Never
2. Outside In
3. Spencer The Rover
4. Bless The Weather
5. My Baby Girl
6. You Can Discover
7. Solid Air

CD2

1. I’d Rather Be The Devil
2. So Much In Love With You
3. Clutches
4. Mailman
5. May You Never (Rehearsal)
6. The Message (Rehearsal)
7. Outside In (Rehearsal)
8. The Man In The Station (Rehearsal)Head And heart (Rehearsal
9. Head And Heart (Rehearsal))
10. Clutches (Rehearsal)

Catalogue Number: 532 519-7 Island

As original release Live At Leeds
Sleeve Notes and Tape Research by – John Hillarby
Remastered by – Paschal Byrne at The Audio Archiving Company, London
Produced by – Joe Black
Art and Design by – Phil Smee at Waldo’s Design and Dream Emporium, St Albans
Universal would like to thank Justin Brown, Elanzo Burgess, Dary Easlea, Amanda Harcourt, John Hillarby, Benita Kimera, Pete Matthews, Emine Rifat, Jok Scott, Nicola Slater, Matt 2Ts Hillarby, Danny THompson and Teresa Walsh
Mamorabilia images courtesy of John Hillarby
Photographs of John Martyn with Paul Kossoff on stage at Leeds courtesy Keith Boden
“Ringside Seat” photographs featuring John Martyn and Danny Thompson courtesy Ben Small
www.johnmartyn.com