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The guitar and voice of Michael Chapman first became known on the Cornish Folk Circuit in 1967. Playing a blend of atmospheric and autobiographical material he established a reputation for intensity and innovation. Signed to EMI's Harvest label he recorded a quartet of classic albums. LPs like 'Rainmaker' and 'Wrecked Again' defined the melancholic observer role Michael was to make his own, mixing intricate guitar instrumentals with a full band sound. The influential album 'Fully Qualified Survivor', featuring the guitar of Mick Ronson and Rick (Steeleye Span) Kemp's bass, was John Peel's favourite album of 1970. 'Survivor' featured the Chapman 'hit', "Postcards of Scarborough", a characteristically tenderly sour song recounting the feelings of nostalgia and regret.

A label change to Decca brought a change in sound. Electric guitar, still with that distinctive Chapman fluidity, featured more prominently. Tracks like "New York Ladies" and "Firewater Dreams" on 'Millstone Grit' showed a guitar master pursuing sounds and textures. Michael continued to build his live reputation, touring solo and with a variety of groups, recording the live album 'Pleasures of the Streets' a strong mix of solo and band performances. He was a regular session contributor to Radio One, and BBC TV broadcast two Chapman Band performances as part of their Sight and Sound series.

A lively and accomplished improviser, Michael gained a reputation for re-working material, both before an audience and on record. Songs were seen as standards, themes to be explored, extended and varied on stage and in the studio. The Don Nix produced 'Savage Amusement' featured versions of the Chapman songs "Shuffleboat River Farewell" and "It Didn't Work Out". Different musicians and a different sound breathed new life into earlier material, showing Michael to be a jazz musician in spirit if not in sound. 'The Man Who Hated Mornings' showed the respect Michael commanded among musicians with supporting performances from Andy Latimer of Camel, Keith Hartley and violinist Johnny Van Derek.

1978 brought another label change and the release of 'Playing Guitar The Easy Way', a guitar tutorial record that explained in simple terms, methods of playing the guitar using 12 different instrumental pieces each with a different open tuning. The critically well received albums, 'Life On The Ceiling' and 'Looking For Eleven', showed that Michael had fully absorbed elements of rock as he had done folk during the '60's, to produce a hybrid that mixed folk, jazz phrasing, rock and elements of what became known as New Age Music.

In response to public demand Michael recorded a solo album 'Almost Alone' presenting the relaxed eclectic mix that was a Chapman club gig. The '80's saw Michael back with Rick Kemp. Touring as a duo they released the live album 'Original Owners', whose version of "Shuffleboat River Farewell", stripped back to guitar and bass, showed that old dogs could teach new tricks. Anyone hearing the anger of the newer material, coupled with the volume and energy of the Chapman Kemp band Savage Amusement, formed in the mid '80's, was left in no doubt that here was an elder statesman growing more acid, rather than mellower with age. After a period of reflection and lower profile releases, Michael captured the mood of the time with his '87 album Heartbeat, a groundbreaking thematic album featuring a continuous 38 minute piece of music. This was an ambition made possible by the advent of CDs.

Experiments with sequencers and sampling on the 90's track "Geordies Down The Road", an anthem to the death of employment in the North East, assaulted the listener with foundry atmospherics and industrial guitars, showing that Michael wasn't standing still. The albums 'Still Making Rain' and '95's 'Navigation' presented a man whose world-weary voice, given a patina by life and hard living, delivered sensitive, emotional songs. While aware of his past, reinterpreting his hit "Postcards of Scarborough", Michael looked to the future. The playing was more considered than ever before. Fewer notes and space for music to breathe, gave songs like "The Mallard" and "It Ain't So" an almost hymn like intensity. 1995 also saw the publishing of Michael's first novel 'Firewater Dreams', a thinly veiled autobiography, which fleshed out some of his highly personal songs and explored his themes of regret, travel and loneliness. Reviews of his album 'Navigation' show the high regard for Michael Chapman, Mojo 11/95 'Twenty one albums and he is still amazing', Q 12/95 '**** (four stars out of a possible five) and this best album in years. Dreaming Out Loud followed again to good reviews. Twisted Road with the brilliant 'Memphis in Winter' closed the century with reviewers calling it a return to the standard of Fully Qualified Survivor 30 years earlier. In 1998 Michael became involved with Thurston Moore / Sonic Youth after a gig in Massachusetts. Michael contributed to the Thurston Moore and English album project, sending tracks to NY for Thurston and Jim O’Rourke to  work on with carte blanche

The new century brought two live albums, a series of reissues and retrospectives with the Growing Pains series, documenting early live recordings and archive material. Travels in the USA and a love of photography informed Americana and Americana 2, instrumental snapshots with stunning sleeves and breathtaking guitar playing. A recent tour of North America on a package with Jack Rose and The No-Neck Blues Band playing solo acoustic improvised instrumentals led to 'Words Fail Me' a double album of atmospheric guitar. Not an overdub in sight, no guitar choirs, not even a tapping of the rhythm foot.

Europe 2007 Chapman produces Peter Ratzenbeck CD ‘Resonances’  and is awarded Austria’s Grammy for best acoustic album. Michael recorded a live and documentary film with American film maker Tara Young.

Today - Working on Sweet Powder new album with long time engineer Alex Warnes in the producer seat, music meshes guitars, loops, beats and textures, will be to the noughties what Rainmaker and Fully Qualified Survivor were to the 60's.

This self-styled old white blues guy from Yorkshire is one of the most under-rated heroes of our time. With his uniquely English melancholic perspective and emotive guitar style he deserves wider recognition.'

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article on Fully Qualified Survivor Michael's Classic 1970 EMI album

Mr. Chapman is an expert folk player just as liable to veer off into jazz, progressive, ragtime, hard rock or experimental directions.

Wall Street Journal 2011

Wherever he goes Michael leaves his audience spellbound. With his guitar playing, his gravely voice and down to earth Yorkshire humour he builds an atmosphere that guarantees a brilliant evening of music and banter.

Norwich Assembly Room 2007

Chapman's expansive guitar work creates a filmic soundtrack of the American South-west that's as compelling as anything Ry Cooder might muster

Rob Beattie Q Magazine Dec 2002

mix two parts Alabama backwater with a few pints of Hull, some vintage wine and some rare herbs, and you have a swampy brew
Bournemouth Daily Echo

his slow burning soulful lyrics and virtuoso guitar work to delight all folk fans, established a reputation for intensity and innovation
The Wharf, Tavistock

this is the sound of a real songwriter who's lived a real life and all that entails
Q Magazine

the nicotine drawl is more mature and evocative than ever. Settle back with your Jack Daniels and enjoy
Record Collector

his playing, the stuff he does with guitars and the way that he builds atmosphere, never ceases to amaze me. If this was a sensible world, where talent and originality counted, then it would sell hundreds of thousands of copies and be up for a Mercury Prize
Review of Americana - Marc Higgins: Journeyman

Press Releases'

Now a worldly wise septuagenarian, enigmatic guitarist and songwriter Michael Chapman is undertaking one of the biggest touring schedules of his career to date.The huge tour takes in the UK, Europe and USA (twice) and we thought you would like to know the full details

Chapman was first championed by John Peel in the 70s and Jack Rose and No Neck Blues Band in the 00s. His Career retrospective double CD and booklet package 'Trainsong: Guitar Compositions 1967-2010' came out on Tompkins Square in February, and Light In The Attic re-issued his classic 'Fully Qualified Survivor' in the same month. Both releases have received stunning reviews.

He's already been rediscovered wholesale in the US courtesy of his Jack Rose and No Neck Blues Band connections, topped off by his extensive interview by fan Thurston Moore in Fretboard Journal in 2009, where Moore compared Chapman's style and influence with that of John Renbourn and Bert Jansch. Now the UK and Europe are catching up with this sudden explosion of excitement about him, and quite right too.

As Spencer Grady notes on the BBC Music site, "Just as John Fahey and Robbie Basho were belatedly sainted by a slew of avant-garde musicians eager to enrich their experimental fields with old primitive tradition, so the same enclave have reached out to embrace Yorkshire-born minstrel Michael Chapman."

In 2011 as well as touring solo around the UK, he will also be doubling up on tourswith Steve Gunn, William Tyler, and in the UK, Europe, and Bill Callahan (USA). On some of his UK dates Michael will have support from talented northern singer songwriter Kath Reade. www.kathreade.co.uk

Web site: www.michaelchapman.co.uk

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com

 

For more details and information, please contact:

Graham Smout

GPS Music Artists, www.gpsmusciartists.co.uk

Tel: 01535 637880. / Mob 07971 072 938. Email gps@smout.co.uk

 

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