Martin was born in Rochford, Essex, England in December 1958. He moved to Perth, Western Australia with his family in January 1968. Martin played his first ‘gig’ in a school hall (Morley High) in 1972 with fellow students. He can remember playing Apache & Peace Pipe by the Shadows, I’m a Believer – The Monkees, Beatles & Cat Stevens’s songs and a few others. By age 14 he was doing professional gigs playing songs by The Beatles, Stones & hits of the time. Around age 15 or 16 Martin was playing professional gigs with some older guys (they were around 20 or so) often playing 5 gigs a week. He recorded some demos and played in various bands (Band Listing) until 1979 when he went to London for a year. He joined original pop/rock band Urban Clearway with whom he recorded a couple of demo tapes that were shopped around the record companies. The band had some interest from Island records in London. He then returned to Australia & played in various line ups (Band Listing) In 1982 Martin joined Perth band ‘Invasion Force’ later to be called ‘Force’ where he met Alf Demasi & Lloyd Allanson with whom he formed the legendary Perth band “The Flying Fonzarellis”. The Flying Fonzarellis released several recordings & toured Sydney in 1984. The band had some chart success holding the number one spot in Perth for a few weeks. After the Fonzarellis he went on to play in Dave Warner's "Sensational Sixties" & then with Midget & the Farrellys who were popular in Fremantle throughout the Americas Cup yacht race. He went on to tour & record with Dave Warner's band. Martin moved to Sydney late in 1989. He played & recorded with The Brookes (see discography). He thinks they were a good band, but probably not right for that time. He toured Western Australia in 1993 with the “Big Land Big Heart” tour. That band contained Dobe Newton (Bushwackers), Ernie Dingo, Dave Warner, Greg Macainish (Skyhooks) Paul Hitchins (Sports) Dave Clarke & Martin. They toured Vietnam with a similar concept in January 1994 . While in Sydney Martin performed with Slide McBride playing anything from jazz to rap and everything in between. The band literally had hundreds of songs in its reptoire. In 1998 he started recording some instrumental guitar songs. Bosco Bosanac, the bass player with legendary Australia group “The Atlantics” heard one of his demo tapes. One Friday afternoon Bosco called Martin. He said "you sound all right on the recordings but can you play live?" His band's guitarist had just called in sick. Martin did the gig and must have done ok because Bosco told the other guys from The Atlantics about him - the rest is history. Since then the Atlantics have gone onto record many of Martin's songs, which have appeared in feature film soundtracks, surf movies, playstation games, the list goes on. In 2007 Martin released his solo album "Revenge of the Surf Guitar" to universally positive reviews. Some of the bands Martin has played throughout the years. Also see productions and Sessions. Rumble and Run 2011 - The Capitols 2003 - Bluelounge 2004 - 2011 The Atlantics 1999 - Slide Mcbride 1993 - 2003 Lassoo 1992 Underdogs 1991 - 1992 The Five Wonders 1990 - 1991 The Brookes 1989 - 1990 Magnificent Seven 1988 Dave Warners From The Suburbs 1988 - Gidget and the Farrellys 1988 - 1989 Redwing 1987 - 1989 Parkerville Pub Thursday night Band 1987 -1989 Midget And The Farrellys 1986 - 1989 Sensational Sixties 1986 Flying Fonzarellis 1983 - 1985 Force 1982 - 1983 Chaser 1981 / 1982 Messenger 1981 Urban Clearway (Uk) 1979 - 1980 Ethos 1979 Bootleg 1976 - 1978 Reverb 1974 - 1976 various early bands (Hareem, Plastic Iron) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.