Martyn Hanson was born in 1956, and is married with two grown-up children. He was a keen runner (now in semi-retirement) and has completed the famous London to Brighton road race twice but found that life begins at being a grandad! Martyn enjoys watching movies, especially films made by Orson Welles, Powell & Pressburger and Stanley Kubrick. His favourite film is Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West. Martyn enjoys reading politics and music books.
In 1993 Martyn graduated with Honours from the Open University and set out to achieve his ambition of becoming a published author. An ELP fan since only a few months after their 1970 debut album, he co-authored The Show That Never Ends, the 2000 definitive ELP biography (soon to be re-published in an expanded, revised edition).
Martyn authored the critically acclaimed Hang On To A Dream — The Story Of The Nice in 2002. He has subsequently written many CD sleeve notes for ELP, The Nice, and Refugee. His third book, Hoggin' The Page — The Story Of Tony McPhee & The Groundhogs was published by Northdown in October 2005.
Martyn's forthcoming fourth book, Playing The Band, (see right column) will complete an interesting trilogy of works tracing the origins of progressive music in the late '60s. The Nice' main influence was classical music, the Groundhogs came from the blues, and Colosseum's main influence was jazz. The three books together will give a fascinating insight into the differing influences that made the period so unique. |
Just before the Groundhogs book came out I started looking for another project. There were several bands I considered but I kept returning to Colosseum.
 I had been a fan since 1972 and bought The Daughter of Time and Colosseum Live. I finally got to see the band live in the '90s and it was unforgettable. I had seen the documentary that accompanied the DVD and it whetted my appetite to find out more details. So I contacted Jon Hiseman and put it to him if he would collaborate with me on a book. He acquired a couple of my books and the project was soon on. I met him in March 2006 and a few weeks later I returned from another visit with his vast archive.
There is no date for publication as yet but it is likely to be in 2010. I have titled the book Playing The Band. Read more here... |
