Maart's book - can you help?
17/02/19 14:33
Maart's wife Jan writes:
"Maart’s last few hours were spent with him telling me his wishes about his book and I promised that I would finish it for him. I now feel ready to do this but I need some help. Maart had written chapters up to 1990 along with other paragraphs and ideas. I am trawling through his emails and other documents on his computer as it is important that as much as possible is written in Maart’s own words. I’m looking for transcripts/recordings of any interviews both pre and post 1990 along with any good stories that will be interesting for readers, especially the humorous ones that gave Maart such delight. Obviously, I have all Fairport’s tour/Cropredy programmes and some of Tull’s along with videos/DVDs made about Fairport. I also have the Q&A session that Maart did on Talkawhile which has provided me with some valuable information. Is there anyone out there who recorded Maart’s farewell speech at Cropredy?
I don’t want anyone to go to a lot of trouble in providing me with something that I already have so, if you have any suggestions or can point me in the right direction please email me first at
Hard copies of anything can be sent to me:
Jan Lane
PO Box 31
Harlech
Gwynedd
LL46 2WQ
Yes, I have always kept my maiden name!
Many, many thanks in advance,"
Jan
"Maart’s last few hours were spent with him telling me his wishes about his book and I promised that I would finish it for him. I now feel ready to do this but I need some help. Maart had written chapters up to 1990 along with other paragraphs and ideas. I am trawling through his emails and other documents on his computer as it is important that as much as possible is written in Maart’s own words. I’m looking for transcripts/recordings of any interviews both pre and post 1990 along with any good stories that will be interesting for readers, especially the humorous ones that gave Maart such delight. Obviously, I have all Fairport’s tour/Cropredy programmes and some of Tull’s along with videos/DVDs made about Fairport. I also have the Q&A session that Maart did on Talkawhile which has provided me with some valuable information. Is there anyone out there who recorded Maart’s farewell speech at Cropredy?
I don’t want anyone to go to a lot of trouble in providing me with something that I already have so, if you have any suggestions or can point me in the right direction please email me first at
Hard copies of anything can be sent to me:
Jan Lane
PO Box 31
Harlech
Gwynedd
LL46 2WQ
Yes, I have always kept my maiden name!
Many, many thanks in advance,"
Jan
Let's give Maart a Christmas hit!
19/12/18 19:10
This is your chance to own a classic piece of Prog-Folk history and for only 99p it's an absolute snip. Please help us get it up the Christmas chart by buying a copy and sharing this with your friends.
You can buy I Believe in Father Christmas on iTunes.
Daily Telegraph Obituary - Maart
10/10/18 13:29
A lovely, well-deserved obituary in today's Daily Telegraph. It's behind a paywall so you'll have to sign up to read it there. Alternatively, we've copied and pasted it below.
"Maartin Allcock, who has died of liver cancer aged 61, was a musician and record producer who spent 11 years as a guitarist with the folk giants Fairport Convention, doubling up for some of that time as guitarist and keyboard player with prog-rockers Jethro Tull.
He was also a fine bass guitarist and violinist, his other instruments including the pipes, mandolin and mandocello, or bass/baritone mandolin, and he was a session musician on more than 200 albums. In later years he championed Welsh-language rock and folk music.
He was born Martin Allcock at Middleton, near Manchester on January 5 1957. He studied music in Huddersfield and Leeds, and when he was 19 began playing in folk clubs and dance bands. The following year he toured with the comedian and musician Mike Harding in Harding’s band, the Brown Ale Cowboys.
He lived for a short time in Brittany then trained as a chef in the Shetland Isles. In 1981 he returned to music, joining the Bully Wee Band, a Celtic folk group.
He teamed up with Fairport Convention in 1985, making his first recorded contribution on the 1986 album Expletive Delighted! Dave Pegg, a stalwart of band, recalled: “[Violinist] Ric [Sanders] and Maart were both writing stuff, composing these great instrumental pieces … So we put out an all-instrumental album.”
The band’s new line-up would be one of the most stable in the band’s history, sticking together for 11 years, and Allcock played a leading role on such albums as Red & Gold (1988), The Five Seasons (1990) and Jewel in the Crown (1995), as well as touring with the band in the US, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong and Turkey.
He changed the spelling of his first name in the mid-1980s, he recalled, after talking to a fellow musician in Dublin, who, when Allcock told him his first name, recognised his accent as north Manchester, telling him he had to spell it with a double “a” from then on.
He stayed with Fairport until 1996, doing much to revitalise a band that had been together, with shifting personnel, for nearly three decades. Between 1988 and 1991 he was also a member of Jethro Tull.
He played on the band’s 1989 album Rock Island, which continued in the hard rock vein the band had recently begun tapping and went gold in Britain. He also toured with the band in Europe and the Americas.
Another project was Waz!, a band he founded with melodeon and concertina player Dave Whetstone and another multi-instrumentalist, Pete Zorn – they took the band’s names from their initials. They released two albums, the second, Fully Chromatic (1999), when Steve Tilston had replaced Whetstone.
In 2000 Allcock moved to Snowdonia. He studied Welsh at Harlech College and began working with the Welsh-language record label, Sain, as a session man and producer.
In the early 2000s he played bass for the Nashville singer and songwriter, Beth Nielsen Chapman. He recorded several solo albums, and worked with other musicians including Yusuf Islam, when the former Cat Stevens made his musical return in the 2000s; the experimental Tuvan throat singer, Sainkho Namtchylak; Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin; Adrian Edmondson’s band, the Bad Shepherds; Ralph McTell; and the former Seeker, Judith Durham.
In August 2017 he joined up with Fairport at the Cropredy Convention Festival – founded by the band in 1979 – to mark their 50th anniversary, and this year, a few weeks before his death, he made his final public appearance at the Festival.
Although he was ill, he played with the band on a rocking version of one of their best-loved songs, Matty Groves. At the end, he told Fairport’s fans: “You’re the best friends I’ve ever known.”
Maartin Allcock is survived by his wife, Jan, and by two daughters and a son from his first marriage.
Maartin Allcock, born January 5 1957, died September 16 2018."
"Maartin Allcock, who has died of liver cancer aged 61, was a musician and record producer who spent 11 years as a guitarist with the folk giants Fairport Convention, doubling up for some of that time as guitarist and keyboard player with prog-rockers Jethro Tull.
He was also a fine bass guitarist and violinist, his other instruments including the pipes, mandolin and mandocello, or bass/baritone mandolin, and he was a session musician on more than 200 albums. In later years he championed Welsh-language rock and folk music.
He was born Martin Allcock at Middleton, near Manchester on January 5 1957. He studied music in Huddersfield and Leeds, and when he was 19 began playing in folk clubs and dance bands. The following year he toured with the comedian and musician Mike Harding in Harding’s band, the Brown Ale Cowboys.
He lived for a short time in Brittany then trained as a chef in the Shetland Isles. In 1981 he returned to music, joining the Bully Wee Band, a Celtic folk group.
He teamed up with Fairport Convention in 1985, making his first recorded contribution on the 1986 album Expletive Delighted! Dave Pegg, a stalwart of band, recalled: “[Violinist] Ric [Sanders] and Maart were both writing stuff, composing these great instrumental pieces … So we put out an all-instrumental album.”
The band’s new line-up would be one of the most stable in the band’s history, sticking together for 11 years, and Allcock played a leading role on such albums as Red & Gold (1988), The Five Seasons (1990) and Jewel in the Crown (1995), as well as touring with the band in the US, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong and Turkey.
He changed the spelling of his first name in the mid-1980s, he recalled, after talking to a fellow musician in Dublin, who, when Allcock told him his first name, recognised his accent as north Manchester, telling him he had to spell it with a double “a” from then on.
He stayed with Fairport until 1996, doing much to revitalise a band that had been together, with shifting personnel, for nearly three decades. Between 1988 and 1991 he was also a member of Jethro Tull.
He played on the band’s 1989 album Rock Island, which continued in the hard rock vein the band had recently begun tapping and went gold in Britain. He also toured with the band in Europe and the Americas.
Another project was Waz!, a band he founded with melodeon and concertina player Dave Whetstone and another multi-instrumentalist, Pete Zorn – they took the band’s names from their initials. They released two albums, the second, Fully Chromatic (1999), when Steve Tilston had replaced Whetstone.
In 2000 Allcock moved to Snowdonia. He studied Welsh at Harlech College and began working with the Welsh-language record label, Sain, as a session man and producer.
In the early 2000s he played bass for the Nashville singer and songwriter, Beth Nielsen Chapman. He recorded several solo albums, and worked with other musicians including Yusuf Islam, when the former Cat Stevens made his musical return in the 2000s; the experimental Tuvan throat singer, Sainkho Namtchylak; Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin; Adrian Edmondson’s band, the Bad Shepherds; Ralph McTell; and the former Seeker, Judith Durham.
In August 2017 he joined up with Fairport at the Cropredy Convention Festival – founded by the band in 1979 – to mark their 50th anniversary, and this year, a few weeks before his death, he made his final public appearance at the Festival.
Although he was ill, he played with the band on a rocking version of one of their best-loved songs, Matty Groves. At the end, he told Fairport’s fans: “You’re the best friends I’ve ever known.”
Maartin Allcock is survived by his wife, Jan, and by two daughters and a son from his first marriage.
Maartin Allcock, born January 5 1957, died September 16 2018."
Farewell Maart
07/10/18 16:10
Maartin Allcock - R.I.P.
19/09/18 12:44
The Midland Hotel was a lovely old art deco design with a wonderful staircase which became more optically challenging the more we had to drink. I think Maart and I tried at one point to climb up the underside of it. Yes we were refreshed!
Maart was a music student and we bonded instantly and became great buddies. I invited him to join Fairport when we reformed after the Gladys' Leap album and he moved to Barford St. Michael to be near us and Woodworm Studios. A wonderful musician who could read and write the dots brilliantly and also improvise, write great tunes and play many instruments so well, he was a real blessing for the new Fairport.
I later joined Jethro Tull and managed to get the Fairports on a U.S.A. tour in a supporting role. Ian Anderson was obviously impressed By Maart's ability as he asked him if he would like to tour as a keyboard player with Tull. The piano was not Maart's first instrument and he did a fab job learning some complex keyboard parts in a short timeframe and also was featured on guitar and bouzouki and bass when I played mandolin. He enjoyed his Tull period and I celebrated the birth of his son with him in New Orleans on one tour.
We were all deeply saddened by the news of his terminal illness and he was such a hero at Cropredy - and so brave and courageous to come and say his farewells to us all. He asked us to rent a new Boss pedal for him to use at the festival and he was still programming it on Tuesday before Wednesday's soundcheck. Maart was a genius with computers.
I gave him a copy of my book at Cropredy and he was really chuffed but said he couldn’t read it until he’d finished his. I know he had got up to 1991 last time I spoke to him and I really hope we will see the finished tome - and also hear some new music he was working on.
He loved the Boss pedal and I got one for him as a present and he said, “Peggy I’m so chuffed and I am leaving it to you in my will.” Maart - I didn’t want it so soon. If I find that you programmed your “Metal Matty” effect in it, I will use it in future performances.
I miss you dear Maartin.
Peggy