One of the UK’s best-loved songwriter/musicians for over 35 years. His must-see live performances are an exuberant tour-de-force combining heart-in-your-mouth intimacy with playful humour and warm self-deprecation.
Inspired by early Cure and the Brighton scene, Martin began his career as a busker aged 15 . He then spent three years plying his trade as the guitar player in various bands in the North East of England . But Martin wanted more, he wanted to tell stories of his own and he was quickly developing ways of doing just that.
He developed his song-writing technique by Firstly learning a few licks from a Spanish guitar book and repeated the process with Jazz, Blues, Country, SkifFle, Reggae etc. Eventually, this glorious collision of styles would become the trademark which Martin has carried through his career of almost 40 years.
Martin formed his band The Daintees, who became a busking sensation and were signed by Kitchenware at around the same time as Prefab Sprout and Hurrah! The band and indeed Martin have always been known for their incredible range of styles, each album covering a multitude of genres, tempos and moods.
In the early days of The Daintees, the band toured with the likes of Aztec Camera and The Bluebells. In 1985 , they became Roy Buchannan’s backing band on a month long tour of Europe and the following year joined John Martyn on his ‘Piece by Piece ‘tour. As a solo artist , Martin also toured around this time with such artists as Hothouse Flowers and Janice Ian.
The Daintees released four albums between 1986 and 1992:
Boat to Bolivia was produced by Gil Norton (Pixies/Gomez/James)
In a review of ‘Bolivia’ at the time , the NME said ‘ it builds bridges between love and hate, between cradle and grave, between folk and pop, between past and present.’
Incudes ‘Rain’, ‘Crocodile Cryer ‘and ‘Running Water’
Gladsome Humour and Blue was produced by Paul Samwell Smith (Cat Stevens, All About Eve, Carly Simon)
Includes the hit ‘Wholly Humble Heart ‘, ‘Nancy’ and ‘There Comes a Time’
Salutation Road was produced by Pete Andersosn (Dwight Yoakam, Michelle Shocked) Includes ‘Morning Time’ , and ‘Left Us To Burn’
The Boys Heart was produced by Lenny Kaye (Suzanne Vega, James)
Includes ‘ Big sky new Light ‘ and ‘We Can Roll’
Disenchanted at the way the industry was moving and following the band’s break up shortly after The Boys Heart , Martin distanced himself from the main stream music industry and relocated to the Scottish highlands in order to recharge and re-evaluate.
Then followed a number of years in which Martin supported himself through a combination of extensive live work and a multitude of self Financed solo albums.
2000 saw the reformation of the Daintees, to this day Martin splits his time between solo and small collaborative projects with band albums and annual celebratory Daintees UK tours.
A few years ago, Martin fought and won a battle to take back control of his catalogue and now owns all the copyright to his vast back catalogue, including the songs on the First four major Daintees albums .
In 2014, Nutella licenced Martin’s song ‘ Morning Time ‘ from Salutation Road as part of a successful TV campaign in Australia . The money this sync generated for both Martin and EMI, prompted the latter to refuse to relinquish recording rights back to Martin. Given that EMI had done nothing to promote Martin and his music for many years, Martin decided to re-record the First four major Daintees albums , in order to take back some control in this regard too……. And what stunning results ensued . It’s taken a while but all four have now been rerecorded to an extremely high standard, using mainly original Daintees members and it has to be said, in all cases actually improving on the original versions.
Daintees albums and solo recordings alike are met with eager anticipation by Martin’s loyal fanbase, who often pre-order projects ahead even of their recording to ensure they see the light of day.
In 2019, Billy Connolly paid a visit to Martin’s home which was Filmed as part of Billy’s Made in Scotland BBC TV programme, in which , Connolly warmly described Martin as his kind of musician and songwriter and the song ‘ Rain ‘ from Boat to Bolivia was heavily featured .
Martin has hundreds of songs which are crying out to be used in tv and Film projects, he is a truly independent artist free of any ties or management which makes dealing with him both enjoyable and straightforward.
The range of material is breathtaking , the best thing to do is see / hear for yourself :
Book a table for pre-concert dining
Acapela Studio provides pre-concert dining between 6.00pm and 7.30pm from our wood burning pizza oven. To view the current menu visit here.
Please purchase your concert tickets first before booking a table. We will not accept any table bookings that do not have a corresponding ticket purchase.
Then return to the event page to book your table, by selecting the date of your event, number of diners and time you require table. The times shown are the only vacancies left. Please complete your email and phone number as this is required to ensure your table is allocated. You will receive confirmation of your booking by email and text.
If on the date you have chosen no tables are available - no times will be shown and the booking system will revert you back to todays date - PLEASE ENSURE YOU BOOK THE CORRECT DATE!
PLEASE NOTE THE VENUE RELIES ON THE INCOME FROM DINING TO ENSURE WE CAN BOOK ALL THE GREAT ACTS PERFORMING.
Income from the provision of pizzas is very important to the venue and if you have booked a table it is a requirement that all people sat at tables order food - a salad alternative is available to pizzas. Please do ensure that all individuals will be ordering on your table - if this is not the case please cancel your table so others who are looking to dine can do so. Our apologies to raise this but recently we have had many tables (some very large) where less than 50% of those sat at tables have ordered food. Financially this is a real problem to the sustainability of the venue.
- All seating at tables must purchase a pizza - so please do not book a table if everyone is not eating.
- Please ensure that you arrive 10 minutes before the time slot allocated to order your pizzas prior to your booking time.
- Tables not seated within 15 minutes of the allocated time may be lost and allocated to other audience members wishing to order pizzas.
- If you wish to book a table for 6 or more please email info@acapela.co.uk
Please note that all of our pizzas are made fresh to order and cooked in an authentic wood-fired oven. It may take up to 45 minutes to be served during busy periods.
IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO BOOK A TABLE YOU CAN STILL ORDER PIZZAS ON THE NIGHT (USUALLY ON BUSY NIGHTS NO LATER THAN 7.15PM) AND WE WILL SERVE THEM TO YOU WHEREVER YOU ARE SAT IN THE VENUE - IN A PIZZA BOX.