Maartin Allcock

Maartin Allcock (born Martin Allcock; 5 January 1957 – 16 September 2018) was an English multi-instrumentalist and record producer.

Born in Middleton, Lancashire (now Greater Manchester), England, Allcock studied music at Huddersfield and Leeds.

He began playing professionally in January 1976, playing in dance bands and folk clubs.

His first tour was in 1977 with Mike Harding as one of the Brown Ale Cowboys.

He went to Brittany in 1978, for a temporary stay, but ended up remaining longer than intended, and learned to cook while there.

On returning to Manchester he studied and qualified to become a chef, working in the Shetland Islands in 1980.

In 1981 he joined the Bully Wee Band, a Celtic folk group, which led to an 11-year stint as lead guitarist with British folk rock band Fairport Convention from October 1985 to December 1996, and concurrently four years as keyboardist with rock band Jethro Tull from January 1988 to December 1991.

In summer 1991 he also played keyboards for The Mission.

From the early 2000s he began working freelance from his home on the west coast of Snowdonia as a session man and record producer with the Welsh language Sain record label.

He began producing Welsh music in 2005 and has produced ten albums for Sain Records in Caernarfon.

He was UK bass guitarist and tour manager for Nashville songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman.

As a record producer:

In 2018, he announced on his web-site that he had been diagnosed with liver cancer and would make his final live performance at the year's Cropredy Festival before retirement.

Fairport Convention played the festival on 11 August.

Allcock died on 16 September 2018, aged 61.

Allcock's session career included more than 200 albums, including Robert Plant, Beverley Craven, Judith Durham, Breton guitarist Dan Ar Braz (six albums), Ralph McTell, Dave Swarbrick, Cat Stevens, and Dafydd Iwan.