We can say with some surity that Beverley Martyn's life has been extensively covered in many places but here I am hoping to cover her more recent activities.
As recently as 2023 Beverly Martyn began to resurface once again. Releasing past interviews stories and anecdotes from her turbulent past. It felt like more music was possibly on the way too. But, sadly, it was not to be.
The comeback, after so many years, began with an album called 'No Frills' in 1998. With help from Art Garfunkel and fellow Dylan obsessive Wilko Johnson, Beverley began to write new songs and record some demos in the '90s, finally releasing an unaccompanied acoustic album after a very long silence.
The songs on 'No Frills' are intense. Beverley's voice was still expressive, the accompaniment sparse but competent. 'No Frills' was aptly titled.
Reviews for the album generally highlight its raw emotional honesty while occasionally noting its minimalist production. It was an album that Beverley was particularly proud of and called it a 'phoenix moment'.
A quite graphic book, Sweet Honesty' was released during January 2011. For years Beverley had kept quiet about the abusive relationship. But here, in those pages, she tells her story in her own words, taking us from her childhood in post-war Coventry through the making of classic albums 'Stormbringer!' and 'Road to Ruin' to the books release, where she survives as a woman beaten but not bowed.
Another head above water moment came during 2014. Aged 67, Beverley returned with an album titled 'The Phoenix and the Turtle' . This was only her second since 'Stormbringer!' and 'The Road to Ruin', the pair of classic folk-rock records she made in 1970 with her ex-husband, the late John Martyn.
'The Phoenix and the Turtle', recorded with former members of Los Lobos and Counting Crows, is an affirming testament to her survival instinct. 'It's been the best thing for a long time' she says. 'It's good to work, it's a great way of escaping your everyday troubles. I'm enjoying this time of my life. I just turned 67, I'm still here, and I think I know who I am now. This is what I do'.
Described by Beverley as a very personal album, 'The Phoenix and the Turtle', features songs written throughout her entire career, from her very first song, 'Sweet Joy', to the previously unrecorded Nick Drake & Beverley Martyn song 'Reckless Jane' which began life in 1974.
Several live performances followed. This included a gig in her native city of Coventry where she was accompanied by producer of 'The Phoenix and the Turtle' and guitarist Mark Pavey. Support for that evening was Cliff Hands.
A collection of live and home recordings, often featuring collaborations with John Renbourn titled 'The Attic Tapes' was released during 2015.
Finally, 'Where the Good Times Are' was released during 2018. This is a compilation and was released for Record Store Day in vinyl format. The album features early recordings from the 1960s, including her solo singles and previously unreleased tracks from her time with the Deram label.
50 years or so after their recording original tapes were unearthed and restored to create a representation of what could possibly have been Beverley's debut album. It is a remarkable record.
The New Wave of British Heavy Metal was a big genre in the 1970s and continued into the 1980s. An awful lot of heavyweight bands were associated with the scene. A couple of compilation albums 'Metal for Muthas' were produced on the back of the metal phenomena. Leamington Spa band Chevy contributed to volume 2 of that series. A huge article littered with interviews was released to the music papers in order to promote the Muthas albums. Here I have extracted the parts of the article relating to Chevy..............
Every so often something comes along as a total shock, bursting upon you instead of creeping up via an escalating feeling of 'hmm must check them out properly sometime they sound quite promising'. Chevy were one of those rare exceptions; their eponymous contribution to 'Metal For Muthas' passed by a welter of other cheapskate sounds, and only much urging by record company Avatar coaxed me to Coventry where I - and many others - were knocked sideways and proceeded to rave, froth at the mouth and shout Chevy's virtues.
And then the album emerged, a good solid debut of......nothing in particular. Great songs well played but no sparkle of life, and it began to appear that the Coventry cataclysm had been a bit of a fluke when the Alvin Lee tour found them being rushed on and off with little fire or apparent commitment. An ongoing 'forget it lads' scenario was in the air.
But now - shazam!. The renaissance of Chevy begins. They can still do it, I saw it with my own eyes (and I have witnesses!) - Chevy tore apart.....a radio 1 in concert session. I saw it all; in their brief thirty minute set. Chevy had a decidedly mixed audience all but dancing in the aisles, as they bristled with infectious energy and enthusiasm that left the audience breathless, let alone the band.
Words were definitely in order as I told them I was there to do an interview, dead casual like, and they said 'oh', dead casual like. So we did it, dead casual like.
Your history please, gentlemen....began the chat:
Martin Cure: 'the band first saw light of day, in its present form, about 2 and a half years ago as Four Wheel Drive. We even called ourselves The Sting for a while'.
Loud and embarrassed plea's for silence on that matter ensue.
Bob Poole: 'that was the biggest, most drunken bunch of loonies you've ever met, that lot was'.
Martin Cure: 'but anyway, that was 2 and a half years as a five piece. And we've looked back ever since'.
Paul Shanahan: 'we did a lot of covers then, a bit of our own material, and we were doing all the local gigs. Slowly we knocked the covers out and ended up doing our own material. We used to do Steely Dan numbers, Boston, the Allman Brothers Jessica, all good stuff that was enjoyable to play. We were doing pub gigs like that. Like we're still playing now!'.
As their own material took command they began to accost record companies with tapes, by a strange twist of fate they found a way of attracting attention to their own tape amidst the mass of others that flood into A&R departments everywhere:
Martin Cure: 'we were doing all these demo's, and it was a long job copying them into the early hours and, er, one slipped past quality control, which ended up at Bronze. They wrote a letter back which read 'thank you for your tape. Unfortunately after listening to it I couldn't find any music on it. I am returning your tape in the hope you will put some music on it and I will give it a listen when you send it back'. So we did and it was Peter Shallcraft who's now here at Avatar. He liked the tape and tried to get us a deal at Bronze but at that point in time they, er, felt unable to do that. It annoyed him a bit, and he heard that EMI were doing a compilation album and put the tracks forward for that and they took the track 'Chevy' as it was'.
'Shortly afterwards Peter left Bronze and came to Avatar, and he suggested that we talk to Avatar, which we did. And they let us do an album straight away, which we were very pleased to do. We'd had a few offers for one off singles, but we thought if we were going to give someone an arm and a leg, we might as well get an album out of it'.
Ok, the deal is in the bag, but what are you aiming to achieve with it?
Bob Poole: 'we're into people like Free when they started, Led Zeppelin - they wrote rock songs, that's the sort of stuff that we want to write, but with plenty of balls. Like the Praying Mantis single, that's great, that's the way it's got to go. In the next couple of years more and more bands will be going that way, there'll be much less of the thrashing. Right now you can think back, at many bands, and remember good songs, your heads swimming'.
Paul Shanahan: 'our personal taste is to try and write songs with a bit of punch to them. We're a ballsy band, we don't want to be like Steely Dan, it just wouldn't suit the way we are'.
So what happened to the album then? It had good songs, it was a good album but largely lifeless in chart position.
Chas Chaplain: 'it reflects the type of music we do, but doesn't reflect the way we play very accurately, we tend to play with a bit more aggression and life than the album puts across'.
Martin Cure: 'it's not our fault. The producer kept crying all the time. And the way he kept disappearing to the toilet when he was sad, and when he came back he was happy and his nose was red at the end. He must have had a terrible cold, and he kept taking all these Phensic tablets and crushing them and putting them up his nose, but it didn't get any better. We kept telling him the English way was to dissolve them in a glass of water'.
Bob Poole: 'seriously though, the end result was as much our fault for not opening our mouths and saying something. It was our first time in a studio, and we didn't know how much we could say'.
Martin Cure: 'I think you can sum it up as a safe album, a polite album. I think certain people, who aren't actually here at present, wanted it that way for a certain market that's quite large and isn't England. I think they blanded us little bit to be honest, but I also think they are coming round to our way of thinking now'.
Paul Shanahan: 'at the time we wanted it remixed, but it wasn't allowed'.
The article wound down with the interviewer explaining how it hadn't been easy putting Chevy together. And that included a lot of graft and hard work. Plenty of touring with amongst others Alvin Lee and Hawkwind.
There was also a sacrifice to be made in giving up easier careers in favour of a rock band. For some it was financially immense.
That said, money wasn't the main motivation for Chevy but, of course, if it is coming in it helps matters.
Cabaret bands were mentioned and how the safe option of regular income had been forfeited, by some of the band members, in favour of this new venture.
Bob Poole: 'the good thing about the tours we've done is that nothing's frightened us or worried us too much. There's been no sitting around in dressing rooms wondering what we were going to do that night'.
Martin Cure: 'mind you, there was a date in Middlesbrough when they said that we can't pay you tonight. That had us a bit worried I can tell you'.
All in all, what counted was quality and Chevy had it in profusion.
Footnote: Steve Walwyn left the Chevy in late 1981. His departure occurred shortly after the release of the band's only studio album, "The Taker", which came out in September 1980. Walwyn was part of the line-up that recorded The Taker and remained with the group until late 1981. So this interview, I have assumed, happened around the time of Steve's departure.
