Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Dear Forumites,

I'm not sure that Martin Newell can be considered a Rickenbacker artist, because I don't think he owns a Rickenbacker, but I know that he usually rents or borrows one for each recording project. He an an eccentric artist who pours just as much creativity into gardening and poetry as music and is known as 'The Wild Man From Wivenhoe' (a town just outside Colchester). He previously recorded under the band names The Cleaners From Venus and The Brotherhood Of Lizards before going solo in the 1990's. To my ears, his music is some of the best Brit-pop I have ever heard. He's not well-known because he hates the music industry, he's eccentric and he rarely performs live anymore. He once did a tour of England on bicycle because he doesn't drive. He also doesn't like to travel. Besides his own chiming guitar, noted Rick-slinger Dave Gregory (formerly of XTC) can be heard on many of his recordings. If you check out any of his CD's, you will be rewarded with clever lyrics, Beatlesque guitars, and Brian Wilson harmonies. He has a website at www.martinnewell.co.uk and I believe sound samples can be heard at www.jarmusic.com. His blog is always entertaining!

If you like jangly music, I encourage you to check it out!

Thanks for the heads-up on Newell's website. I agree, Newell writes Brit-pop of the highest quality. "The Greatest Living Englishman" is one of my favorite albums - there is a definite Ric sound on many of those tracks, for example "Goodbye Dreaming Fields," "Jangling Man," "She Rings the Changes," or whatever that one's called...

Craig: I first heard Martin on 'The Greatest Living Englishman'. I originally bought it because it prominently credited Andy Partridge (of XTC) on the cover. The very songs you listed blew me away. I went back to my friend at the record shop and demanded to know who the hell Martin Newell was and where did he come from! He told me to look for anything by The Cleaners or The Brotherhood of Lizards. This was before the internet, so info was much harder to find. Now I've got everything. All through the 1980's, Martin recorded in his dining room and released his 'albums' on cassette only. Luckily, they have all been put on CD now. The sound is rough at times, but the songwriting sparkles. Pure genius in my book!

Randy: much appreciated info. I too am an XTC fan (if you haven't done so already, you should look at David Gregory's guitargonauts.com, especially his guitar "pics of the month"; several Rics there). I bought GLE for exactly the same reason you did. However, I've been really lazy about hunting down his other stuff. It's all compiled on CD now, huh? I'l have to put that on my Christmas list (seems appropriate, no?)

Craig: It's gonna be a long Christmas list if you have to have everything, like I always do. I got everything listed on the Jarmusic website, and found few other odds and ends on Ebay. Don't skip the spoken word poetry stuff either, because it's as good as the music. I've been to Dave Gregory's website many times, to look through his collection. He's got some interesting stuff on there. I'm planning to buy a Jerry Jones electric sitar based on Dave's endorsement.

Cool - you should post your assessment of that electric sitar once you get it. I'm sure lot's of people here would be interested.

Craig: Hopefully I'll finally get to realize my dream of playing rockin' free-form electric sitar at a local tandoori house on the weekends...

Fantastic! Hopefully you live near or on a college campus... the kids would undoubtedly eat it up.

I was just kidding. Any Indian raga rave-ups will probably be confined to my own living room.