Tributes have been paid to Oliver Martin of Ghold, one of tQ’s favourite heavy bands, who died recently following a serious illness, aged 39. Donations in his memory are asked to be made to helpmusicians.org.uk.
News of Martin’s death was shared by his bandmates on social media on 2 February, where they said: “We lost our best friend, our brother, comrade & companion recently. We do and will continue to miss him so dearly. Love and power to an incredible person and musician whose influence on us will never leave.”
Martin was born in Bexley on 27 August 1986. He met his future bandmates Paul Antony and Al Wilson in 2013, who were then performing in Ghold as a two piece. After seeing Martin’s band Vodun perform live, Antony and Wilson insisted that they tour together. “Oli just ripped the guitar with a confidence and naturality we’d rarely seen,” they told tQ over email. “An elemental, precise, freewheeling force opening up the firmament. Reeks of Eddie Hazel and Jimmy Page.
“His playing commanded your undivided attention. Floor shows in basements of pubs were demolition zones.”
Martin’s first contribution to Ghold was an appearance on guitar on their 2015 debut album Of Ruin, where he added “ominous, noisily psychedelic edge” – as the band put it – to the track ‘Tear Shadow’. He joined the band full time for their next LP PYR, released in 2016.
“‘This is the band for me’ was always his epithet. We just clicked as three, an unusual telepathy,” Antony and Wilson continued. “Then there were the live shows, our relatively rigid foundations bloomed into jams that just seemed to open up with him, all three of us revelling in edge of the seat, controlled sonic chaos.”
Martin went on to co-write three more albums and an EP with the band, contributing lyrics as well as music. “Bleak as they were, they fit what we wanted, and we explored that literary sensibility together. Hate, woe, disgust. an old social media handle and our sonic reverance.”
Charlie Woolley, founder of the label Crypt Of The Wizard, who released Ghold’s 2019 album Input>chaos and 2017’s Stoic, told tQ in a separate conversation: “I first met Oli when he joined Ghold, not long after I’d started working with them, transforming the duo into a trio.” He remembered Martin as “a chaotic, gentle giant. His remarkable guitar playing never over-asserted itself but somehow found and filled space left by the thunderous rhythm section.
“Uniquely smart, acerbically witty, and wild, touring together left us all with scars and indelible memories alike.”
Martin’s bandmates added: “He liked to refer to himself as the ‘ras el hanout rub on the chicken thigh that is Ghold’. The spicy smattering of flavour on top of the meat bringing a previously unexplored depth. It always made us laugh. We all made each other laugh, hard and constantly. We read and understood each other musically and as a group of best friends. I suppose thats what you get from being kindred spirits. Which we will continue to be.”
Martin is survived by his son, Offa, his mother Christine and brother Alex. Ghold wished to highlight the good work done by helpmusicians.org.uk to anyone who wanted to donate in his memory.
