He was interviewed by the Daily Mirror in September last year, just before his 60th birthday. Entitled 'Martyn on his nine lives', he makes some comments which sound just heart-breaking now:

"I guess I'm hard to kill," Martyn shrugs. "I really love life and recently I've got back to doing the things that I loved as a child – looking at birds and foxes in the back garden."

"I have to get ready for my 70th now," he says. "In The Bible it says you live three score years and 10 – so I'm not done yet. I'm going to give it my best shot for the big seven oh!"

In another interview with Mojo the following month, he was asked if he found it difficult singing 'Solid Air' in the aftermath of Nick Drake's death:

"No, it was never difficult singing that – people shuffle off their mortal coil left, right and centre, don't they? No one's written a song about me yet [laughs]. That's because I'm still here."