Following one of my favourite John gigs at Oxford Apollo in 1984 I was walking to the motorway with my friend and his girlfriend. We were hoping to hitch a lift or two back to Cheltenham. As we passed a garage I saw a white van refuelling. I then noticed a silhouette of someone inside the van and just happened to say, “ looks like John Martyn”.
My friend was like Tigger at the time, very energetic and instantly bounded over to the van. He then waved us over and we spent the next ten minutes or so chatting to John. He was very friendly and introduced us to his keyboardist, Foster Patterson and his new wife, Anni.
John signed my friends cassette cover for the Sapphire album and he even gave us his address, which at the time was Roberton in Scotland. Then the huge presence of Kenny, Johns driver/roadie appeared and bellowed at us the chilling words “If you’ve finished now fuck off!!!!!”.
Thinking about it later I realised he probably had a long drive a head and we were holding him back. John suddenly switched and snapped at Kenny putting him in his place. “These are my friends and they pay your fucking wages”. This completely defused the situation and deflated Kenny who promptly slinked off.
Six years later I was at John’s show at Sheffield Crucible and Kenny came and stood right next to my seat before the gig started. Hopefully to just soundcheck rather than scare the shit out of me again! Needless to say it was an uncomfortable few minutes before John walked on stage and started the show with his epic Dealer/Inside Out medley.
Keith Boden
