Danny Thompson and Friends
"Not A Tribute To John Martyn"
Celtic Connections 2010
The Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow
30 January 2010

In memory of Iain David McGeachy OBE (John Martyn) 11th September 1948 to 29th January 2009

Friends are: Donald Shaw, Michael McGoldrick, Darrell Scott, Luka Bloom, Tim O'Brien, Mollie O'Brien, Eddi Reader and Martin Simpson

Set 1: MM-MCSM-4 mini cardiod stereo mics w Elite Battery/ Filter Model
MM-EBM-1 > Edirol R-09 > SD card > wav (16bit/ 44.1kHz)>BigDee>Mastering>Flac>resplit>tagged with Foobar

Set 2: CSBs>Battery Box>Edirol R-09> SD Card> BigDee>mastering>Flac>resplit>tagged with Foobar

CD Artwork included in the files. Many thanks go to both BigDee for mastering and Primula for the first set.

From the newspapers at the time:
Danny Thompson and Friends: Connected, Old Fruit Market, Glasgow
(HeraldScotland)
Rob Adams
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31 Jan 2010

In the end, the tribute concert that wasn’t intended as a tribute concert paid a mighty tribute.

The main business of the evening may have been to focus on the assembled guests and the work that has reinforced their connections with Danny Thompson – and the classiness of Darrell Scott and Tim O’Brien delivering their Walk Beside Me and O’Brien’s sister Mollie raising the hairs on the back of the neck with her gospel-infused singing of No Ash Will Burn, reinforced the quality of the great bass player’s associates.

There was, though, the feeling that performers and audience were in on a surprise party for someone who might turn up at any minute. He never did arrive, yet while Thompson avoided mentioning his late curly haired mate’s name until the last song, John Martyn was there all the time. He was in the music, with Scott paying early respects in Over the Hill and noting that, although they’d never met, he’d got a real sense of Martyn through Thompson; and he was in the recollections, sending Thompson off on an unscheduled tale of a fishing mishap.

If the concert’s finale, Martyn’s May You Never, was a bit of a guddle, but a man who liked catching fish wouldn’t have minded that. Luka Bloom’s Head and Heart and Martin Simpson’s Spencer the Rover captured Martyn perfectly. Eddi Reader added Couldn’t Love You More with her customary vocal embroidery but the performance of the night, in Martyn and non-Martyn terms, was Mollie O’Brien’s foundation shaking Easy Blues, giving the curly haired mate’s jelly roll an invigorating tickle.


Legend Danny Thompson will preside over an evening of musical adventure featuring Darrell Scott, Luka Bloom, Eddi Reader, Martin Simpson and Tim O’Brien. With the musical participants pulling influences from four corners of the globe, this promises to be a veritable musical cornucopia. The show will also feature a special tribute to his long-time friend John Martyn who he toured and recorded with for over 20 years with John’s songs being interpreted by this formidable line up.

Danny Thompson’s career has spanned 55 years and counting. He has played with virtually every major artist over the past five decades and features on over 1,000 albums and countless singles, soundtracks and sessions. Having started in the house band at Ronnie Scott’s at the tender age of 16, his musical journey has taken him from the seedy back streets of Soho to the rarefied atmosphere of Carnegie Hall, as well as encompassing musical collaborations with prominent musicians from Africa, India, America and Europe.

OH, TO have friends like Danny Thompson. Imagine the gatherings you could host if only a phone call away were musicians like Darrell Scott, Martin Simpson, Tim O'Brien and Luka Bloom. During his long-running career (55 years and counting), Thompson has played double bass with a remarkable array of artists. On Saturday night he brought together seven of them – a diverse but complementary bunch who stood tall on their own, yet came together as a unit as if they'd played music with each other for years.

The Scotsman
It was something of a dream line-up – Scott, Bloom and Simpson on guitar, Tim O'Brien on mandolin, sister Mollie O'Brien and Eddi Reader on vocals, Michael McGoldrick on pipes and Celtic Connection's own Donald Shaw on keyboards – with Thompson the presiding officer at the back of the stage.

Taking place as it did a year and a day after the untimely death of folk hero John Martyn, the concert was in part a celebration of his world, although, as Thompson was at pains to point out, this was not a tribute show – "I would never use my curly-haired mate to get a gig." But pay tribute they most certainly did, punctuating songs such as Fairytale Lullaby and Head and Heart with various poignant memories of Martyn.

Perhaps Simpson said it best when he remarked with typical understatement: "Today wasn't a hard day," having spent all of it rehearsing for this show. It wasn't a hard night, either.

Set 1 (53.14)
1. Bass Solo (DT) (2.10)
2. Intro to Friends (7.25)
3. Come In To This Room (DS)(4.22)
4. Introduction to Over The Hill (DT) (0.14)
5. Over The Hill (DS) (6.32)
6. Intro to Sunny Sailor Boy (LB) (0.28)
7. Sunny Sailor Boy (LB) (4.09)
8. Martin Simpson Chat (0.38)
9. Never Any Good (MS) (6.07)
10. Danny Thompson Fishing Tale (4.36)
11. Greystones (MS) (4.15)
12. Mollie O'Brien Chat (0.34)
13. No Ash Will Burn (MOB) (4.34)
14. Tim O'Brien Chat (1.21)
15. Brother Wind (TOB)(5.48)

Set 2 (80.49)
1. Eddi Reader Intro (1.05)
2. Fairytale Lullaby (ER) (4.21)
3. Eddi Reader Chat about John Martyn (1.56)
4. River Take Me (DS) (8.09)
5. Martin Simpson Chat and tuning (1.16)
6. Spencer The Rover (MS) (4.27)
7. Luka Bloom Chat (0.17)
8. City of Chicago (LB) (3.38)
9. Luka Bloom Chat about JM (1.01)
10. Head and Heart (LB) (4.37)
11. Tim O'Brien Chat (0.48)
12. One Foot In Front of the Other (TOB) (4.28)
13. Mollie O'Brien Chat (1.16)
14. The Easy Blues (MOB) (4.37)
15. Martin Simpson Chat about Danny (3.31)
16. One Day (MS) (4.45)
17. Couldn't Love You More (ER) (5.28)
18. Luka Bloom Chat (0.33)
19. Don't Be Afraid of the Light that Shines Within You (LB) (6.05)
20. Darrell Scott Chat about Danny (0.29)
21. The Open Door (DS) (4.51)
22. Danny and Eddi Chat (0.49)
23. Burns reading: (ER)On a Scotch Bard Gone To The West Indies (1.06)
24. Danny Thompson Chat (1.54)
25. May You Never (All and audience) (5.53)

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