Born in Gillingham, Kent, raised on peanut butter and The Beatles, Martin played harmonica on the gravestones of St Mary's Church until a plastic guitar changed his life at the age of 8. "I fell in love with the acoustic guitar listening to Roy Harper, Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen and all that happy stuff!"
In 1986 he was signed by Chris Blackwell to Island Records and his album The Englishman Abroad - produced by Rupert Hine, with guests Howard Jones, Phil Palmer (Dire Straits) and Trevor Morais (drummer with ‘60's legends The Peddlers and later in the ‘90's Underworld) - was first released. One of Martin's songs from the album Shine was subsequently included in the film soundtrack of "Better off Dead" starring John Cusack and another, 'The Eighth Wonder', was a huge international success when covered by Miguel Bose. Since then Martin's songs have been covered by Sally Barker and The Poozies and he has toured Europe with Van Morrison, Chris Isaak, The Fixx and Tom Robinson, to name a few.
His partnership with Debbie Cassell in the duo Woman Wants Tall Man has led to two CDs, 'Woman Wants Tall Man' and 'Best With The Head Off'.
Martin's latest solo CD 'June Said' is dedicated to his mum who died on September 30th 2006 from a brain tumour. Far from morose, it contains uplifting songs like 'Chain Smoking Insects' which stabs at GM crops and 'The Settler', a song about a young woman who paints naked men.
Martin, i had to take a time out to say i hope all is well and i of course i dont need to tell you how much I love your work, i think we have already been through that haha.
I was truly born in the wrong generation...i was meant for more than im doing now. The music we could have created 20 years ago..
I have just this very day done a eight song session at Rich Bitch studios in Birmingham Martin and your Old Guitar was the star of the show, still sounds as good as ever, must still have your touch in it somewhere mate
Mart your just amazing I love your voice and your songs even more, best wishes buddy, ps your guitar still safe and well and sounding great , take care
Hi, Martin. How are you? I'll try to give you a call soon. Lots of work at the moment, with the kids catching all sorts of viruses, and preparing a new film that I'm hoping to be shooting early next year. I've got new mixes of my album uploaded on my page. Have a listen. I think it sounds so much better. Speak to you soon. Lots of love,
Hi Martin Ansell, just a quick hello from the Jazz Pistols - hope you are doing fine and the first few weeks of 2007 have been great so far. Wish you all the best for 2007 - thanks for being our friend and good luck for the things you do. Best regards - Christoph
Our Live-DVD will be released on the 1st of February 2007!
If you would like to hear more tunes of the Jazz Pistols you can check out our homepage and get the Jazz Pistols CDs in our own shop - if you are living in the USA it will be cheaper to get them at CDBaby, Abstract Logix or as digital download at iTunes. Please join our newsletter if you are interested in our tour schedule and upcoming releases.
Martin Ansell
Happy New Year!!! I hope Santa was nice to you this year, and that 2007 is a great year.
We finally had a night off last night....after 12 nights in a row. We play Brighton tonight....and then Nottingham tomorrow night.....having a great time with the guys. Al Perkins is playing his butt off!
Here is a little video i made of the guys in the band..for a laugh!...the Shawn Byrne bit will crack you up! Click here to watch it. Anyway, take care and hope to see you soon! Kevin
Happy new year Martin ! "The Englishman Abroad" is a masterpiece for me since 20 years now ! I am very happy to find you on the web. Fabien from France.
