Singer-songwriter Joe Martin from Chipping has followed his dad's famous footsteps onto the stage but is forging his own path to Country music fame
Joe Martin is no stranger to the spotlight. He was on the stage from the age of five, he was part of a group that had a platinum-selling album when he was 11 and in his mid-teens he was performing alongside one of the most famous Lancastrian comedians.
It helped that the comedian was also Joe’s dad.
Chorley-born Phil Cool worked as voice artist for Spitting Image, but became much better known for his facial contortions than his vocal mimicry. He spent more than 30 years touring and performing before he retired at the end of a farewell tour in 2013. Now living in Chipping, he is supportive of Joe’s career but didn’t want him to follow the same path.
‘I was forbidden from going in to comedy by my dad,’ Joe said. ‘Things are very different now and it is tough. In the 70s and 80s when my dad started, he was in working men’s clubs five nights a week and they were packed.
‘Now, it can be a big commitment to go out; the travel, eating out and ticket for a gig, it can be very expensive, especially when there’s so many channels on tv in the comfort of your own home. Also, people often want to know what they’re going to get and that they’ll enjoy it. That’s why tribute acts are doing so well now – audiences know the songs and like the nostalgia. It’s harder for original acts coming through now to make it.’
But Joe is working hard to ensure he does make it. He is on tour this autumn, supporting Creedence Clearwater Revival, he has a new single out this month which will be followed by his debut studio album, Empty Passenger Seat, and 15 date UK tour.
‘Dad’s career was winding down a bit in the mid-90s when I was born,’ Joe added. ‘I have very early memories of him being away a lot but as I got older I started going to his shows and at the very end of his career, when I was about 15, he started getting me up on stage with my guitar to sing a few songs.
‘The stage wasn’t new to me, but that was my first experience of proper theatre gigs with a dark auditorium and a spotlight. It was quite nerve-wracking at the time, but they are my favourite kinds of show now.
‘I have been performing and singing since I was about five. I started doing classical singing and piano. ‘When I was about 11 I won a singing competition in Lytham and someone approached me and told me about some auditions. I went along, did well, and kept going through to the next stage.
‘At the end of the process, I was chosen, along with five others to form Angelis, a singing group created by Simon Cowell.’
The album came out in November 2006 and sold over 350,000 copies and reached number two on the UK album charts. The young singers were presented with a platinum disc but the group was disbanded just a few months later.
It was a setback, but only a temporary one. Joe got his first guitar at the age of 12 and he never looked back.
He studied popular music performance at Leeds College of Music and has been writing and performing his own songs ever since.
Joe grew up listening to the Beatles, the Eagles, Elvis and the Beach Boys and was influenced by songwriters such as Paul Simon, James Taylor and Bob Dylan. And when he discovered Country music and Americana, he knew he had found his genre.
In 2017 he released his debut EP ‘Small World’ at the Bluebird Café, a famous Country music venue in Nashville. In 2021 Joe released his new EP ‘Bound For Lonesome’, a series of songs written on his 2018 trip to Nashville and recorded with the renowned and much loved Chorlton Country Club. Earlier this year he recorded a live album ‘The First Five Years’ an initiative to fund and kickstart his forthcoming debut album, which will be released in April 2023.
His career was kick-started when he met Pete Barton, a musician and manager who owns McCullough’s Irish bar in Barnoldswick where he has converted the cellar into a wonderfully intimate live music venue.
In a long and colourful career Pete has performed with Wayne Fontana, The Swinging Blue Jeans, Lieutenant Pigeon, the Animals and the Boomtown Rats. He now manages a number of acts and has attracted The Osmonds, Kiki Dee, the Blow Monkeys, Big Country, Bruce Foxton of The Jam and punk legends The Skids to play in Barnoldswick.
‘I had heard about Pete’s new venue and went along to give him a cd and see if there was a chance I could play there,’ Joe said. ‘He called me the next day to say he’d listened to the cd and asked if I wanted to work with him. I have played some really cool venues and some incredible gigs since then.’
The pair also worked to re-open the studio in the garden of Pete’s home in Clitheroe, where Joe recorded some of his first solo studio album, including his new single High Gravity which comes out this month.
‘I always knew I wanted do this, but I didn’t know how hard it would be,’ he said. ‘I have really enjoyed the process of making the album though. It’s not just a bunch of songs, they work well together.
‘The more you write the better you get. I was writing every day in my early 20s but now it’s not as much. Sometimes the words come first, sometimes the music – occasionally both come together but that’s very rare.’
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Joe’s single ‘High Gravity’ comes out on October 7. His tour starts in April 2023 and includes dates in Barnoldswick and Manchester. For tickets and more information, go to joemartinmusic.com.
