'Mad Martins' is Gary's award-winning multidisciplinary historical project depicting the extraordinary lives and times of the notorious Martin Brothers, William, Jonathan and John, who were born in the late Eighteenth Century in the South Tyne area of Northumberland. Epic in scope and scale, hugely ambitious and highly original, Mad Martins is a unique performance, recording and book project featuring original songs, music, poetry and spoken word narration.
Eldest brother, William was the self-styled “Philosophical Conquerer of all Nations”, a doggerel poet, pamphleteer, engraver and inventor. Like his younger brothers, he aspired to be ‘Renaissance Man’ and aimed for the “defeat of learned humbugs”.
Jonathan Martin has gone down in history as "the notorious incendiary" of York Minster. Frequent fits of rage against the clergy, including an attempt to assassinate the Bishop of Oxford led to his committal to several lunatic asylums, from which he escaped twice, before setting fire to York Minster in 1829, for which he was again committed to Bedlam, where he later died.
John, the youngest, was, like his brother William, an ‘all-rounder’, devising sewage schemes for London, along with a number of other inventions but is most famous for his epic New Romantic paintings of Biblical scenes. One of these, 'Pandemonium', based on Milton’s 'End of the World', sold in 2003 for a record £1.65 million.
Mad Martins was released on Whippet Records as a deluxe 50-track 3-CD set housed in a lavishly packaged 104-page deluxe book beautifully designed by artist and illustrator Helen Temperley and containing lyrics to all the songs, poems and spoken word pieces, with additional inter-linking text and many beautiful images, including paintings, engravings, sketches, illustrations and original artwork, further enhancing the story.
“A veritable triumph!” ***** (RnR Magazine, UK)
“To say that this is a masterpiece is still an understatement” 10/10 (FRaME Music, UK)
“A magnificent piece of work” (folking.com, UK)
“An extraordinary work” (FRUK - Folk Radio UK)
"A highly ambitious piece of art that has been pulled off to perfection" (Shite 'n' Onions, USA)
A companion CD, ‘Fair Flowers Among Them All (The ‘Mad Martins’ Instrumentals)’ was also made available.
For more information including audio files, lyrics, merchandise, downloads, reviews, etc., CLICK HERE.
Working in international collaboration with a variety of professional creative artists from multiple disciplines, Gary is currently in the process of expanding and updating the Mad Martins project with new material, including new songs, new artwork, animation and more.
Spearheading this update is an animated promotional video for the songs 'Four Bare Walls' and 'Escape', a trans-Atlantic collaboration with Durham-based illustrator Helen Temperley, New York-based animator Michael Sciortino at MShortToons and Connecticut-based film producer Stephanie Stender at Doorstop Productions...