Solid Air...

...To London's Roundhouse this evening to watch the venerable John Martyn, once the skipping imp of English folk music; now an old sweet giant, with growling voice and a look as benevolent as an ageing Orson Welles in touch with his inner child.

Wheeled on (leg lost to a burst cyst some years back), mimicking a drowsy Falstaff by the inn fire the music begins around him as he leans back in his chair no more than tinkering with the guitar on his lap. Then mid-song he cuts in with a searing, swooping solo, looking at his hands with a half-amused smile as if to question whether it's really himself that's playing so bright and so fine.

The voice is now a growl - half Van Morrison, half Alvin Youngblood Hart - over a jazz backing out of mid-career Joni Mitchell ('Hissing of Summer Lawns' meets 'TB Sheets' via 'Fightin' Hard'). The speaking voice is even odder than the sung - pure stream-of-consciousness Les Dawson.

The electric set comes first. It works well, but I'm wondering where will be the necessary lightness of touch for the inevitable and much longed for acoustic set. The spirit of the young imp is still there, but will the weight of the older flesh be able to let it fly as it must?

Oh most certainty it can and did. If the album and the song 'Solid Air' moved you then, it would have done so again tonight. 'Over The Hill', 'May You Never', 'Go Down Easy' and of course 'Solid Air' itself.

A certain nostalgic tear might even have been seen spotting the clerical cheek as one stood there wearing one's favourite Nick Drake tee-shirt, enraptured by the song of the moment and memories of the years. (They were good friends and 'Solid Air' was and is John's song for Nick.)

"You've been taking your time and you've been living on solid air.
You've been walking the line and you've been living on solid air.
Don't know what's going 'round inside,
And I can tell you that it's hard to hide when you're living on solid air.

You've been painting the blues and you've been looking through solid air.
You've been seeing it through and you've been looking through solid air.
Don't know what's going 'round in your mind,
And I can tell you don't like what you find when you're moving through solid air.

I know you, I love you,
And I can be your friend. I can follow you anywhere,
Even through solid air.

You've been stoning it cold, you've been living on solid air.
You've been finding it cold, you've been living on solid air.
I don't know what's going on inside,
I can tell you that it's hard to hide when you're living on solid air.

You've been getting too deep, you've been living on solid air.
You've been missing your sleep and you've been moving through solid air.
I don't know what's going on in your mind,
But I know you don't like what you find when you're moving through solid air.

You've been walking your line, you've been walking on solid air.
You've been taking your time but you've been walking on solid air.
Don't know what's going on inside,
But I can tell you that it's hard to hide when you're living on solid air."

Dear Nick, genius and quite a lost soul, and thank you John for still being here to sing of and for him.