Folk For Christabel

16th May  1970  Leyton Senior High School for Girls

Keith Brincorn remembers..

Spookily, exactly one year and twelve days after the night of the 4th May 1969 that marked the beginning of the end for our January guest star's well- documented love affair, the host of that fateful party was our headline guest tonight!
Another connection between the two concerts was the presence of Mudge & Clutterbuck as support act. Apart from their own compositions mentioned elsewhere, they demonstrated their influences by giving renditions of Al Stewart's 'Zero she flies' and Incredible String Band's 'Everything's fine right now.'

Also in support were Colin and Terry on top form. Terry sang another early String Band number 'Dandelion Blues, while Colin performed one of his most robust new songs 'Citizen'. Together they injected an excellent sense of fun into a medley of 'Alice's Restaurant' and the Keith Christmas classic 'Bedsit Twostep', and brought the house down with their intricate instrumental introduction to that Old English traditional folk song, 'There are two men in my life, to one I am a mother, to the other I'm a wife; and I give them both the best with natural Shredded Wheat!'

As for top of the bill John Martyn, 1970 found him on the cusp of transforming from curly-headed acoustic folk cherub ('Don't think twice, it's alright'), to spaced out jazz freak ('Road to Ruin'). He was just beginning to experiment with his echoplex device that was to lift him from everyday folkie to cult figure. As a watershed, this was the year he released  his two albums with wife Beverley, though she was not in evidence tonight.

 His lengthy echoing instrumental explorations towards the end of the evening were a revelation, but seemed rather at odds with the down to earth character with whom yours truly and others of the Christabel entourage conversed  backstage in between sets. One of our least rock and roll colleagues discovered that he had something in common with the future advocate of living on solid air .. pigeon-fancying dads! They shared many hilarious anecdotes, peppered with abundant expletives and belly laughs, not necessarily associated with sensitive acoustic troubadours or pot-headed pixies. But then Martyn has always been something of an indefinable enigma..

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