Atrax Records: The Swarb Archive: Musical Powerhouse

'The Musical Powerhouse known as Swarb'. Folk Review April 1977.

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DAVID BROWN has a look at the musical powerhouse known as

SWARB   

It’s easy to find Dave Swarbrick in the village of Cropredy near Banbury, Oxon. Just ask for the mad fiddler. That’s the name he’s been given by the villagers, proud of having their own ‘pop’ star in the community. He lives in a delightful stone cottage complete with recently-thatched roof and presently being extended, in the village High Street with one of his near neighbours being fellow Fairport member Dave Pegg. They’ve managed to make quite an impact on the rural community and are now regarded as locals. Fairport often rehearse in the village hall and play once a year to raise money for village projects.

One of the village pubs, The Brasenose, was the backdrop for the photos on the sleeve of Fairport Convention nine, while another, The Red Lion, has the Fairport beer mats on all it’s tables. The village itself can be found in an instrumental’s title on their last Gottle o’geer album, ‘Cropredy capers’.

It’s the sort of village you can feel comfortable in, and Swarb says it is a lot better than working in the taut London conditions they had been used to. And the peaceful atmosphere seems to have had a good effect on his work. This year has seen the release of Swarbrick’s first solo LP for many years, surprising for a figure so well known in the folk world. It marks a return to the straightforward traditional fiddle tunes, which many will find a welcome return from some of his electric experiments of recent years.

It is interesting to reflect that his folk playing began with him as a guitarist in a Ceilidh band with Roger and Beryl Marriott. He had played the fiddle prior to this and was encouraged by them to take it up again.

From there he went to the Ian Campbell Group, where he met bass player Dave Pegg and then spent three fruitful years in the company of Martin Carthy. Though the work with the latter was not without success, Swarb really came into his own with the big switch to amplified fiddle when he made his mark with Fairport Convention. He’s been in Fairport (abbreviated last year to it’s already much used name) for about eight years now and has managed to keep the band alive despite a string of financial and personnel difficulties.

When asked why he had recorded the solo album now he gave the simple answer; ‘Because I wanted to. It just seemed right at the moment.’ And right it was; so successful has the album been that it has outsold the last Fairport LP and the news is that a second volume is coming out in April on Transatlantic.

‘They were recorded at the same sessions,’ he says. ‘Most of them in one or two takes. With Fairport we can sometimes take several takes before we get it right, but then I have been playing some of these tunes now for many years.’

His album marks a reunion not only with former companion Martin Carthy (there is definite talk of them touring later this year), but also with Roger and Beryl Marriott and Kate Graham from his early Ceilidh band days. Also lending a hand are the other members of the current Fairport, Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg and Bruce Rowland. So the album really spans his entire musical life. It takes in mainly traditional arrangements with a Playford tune – the ever popular ‘Hole in the wall’ – plus his own composition ‘Carthy’s march.’ The second set will contain a similar mix.

A solo London Queen Elizabeth Hall concert was being arranged for the end of February, using some of the musicians featured on the LP, and further touring could develop. But he is anxious to point out that this work is additional to that with Fairport and not meant to replace it in any way. He has struggled long enough to keep Fairport afloat to abandon ship at this stage. After a succession of short lived line-ups – the band has been down to Swarbrick and Pegg on occasions – they have now got a good working relationship together with Nicol and Rowland, and will have an album out with that line-up soon titled The bonny bunch of roses, and will be their first album since they left Island last year, probably coming out on RCA.

Their Island contract ran out and neither side was particularly keen to renew it. Fairport have done a dozen albums with Island, with their very first being made available on a Polydor mid-price label last year.

Since their move Island have recently issued an album under the title Fairport Convention live at The LA Troubadour, recorded five years ago at Los Angeles with the same line-up that was on Full house.

Swarb’s reaction to the album is blunt: ‘I would never play it. We were responsible for the recording of it’s true, but I listened to the tapes after it was recorded and . . . ‘ he nods his head from side to side.

Fairport fans may be interested in the set though since it does feature Richard Thompson on some numbers that he did not play on any of their other albums, and he does sound in good form in places – or as Dave Pegg neatly put it: ‘Over the top’. It is on the specially priced HELP label too, which is another incentive, though the whole thing is marred by an unsuitably garish cover.

‘I get a thrill, a buzz when I do something good,’ Swarb reports. ‘But I loathe doing something bad.’

What was his opinion of the last ‘band’ album, Gottle o’geer?

‘Well, it wasn’t really a band album at all. And I must admit there were some tracks I was disappointed with, but then again there were three that couldn’t have been bettered, I thought.’

It had in fact started out as his solo album, a very different solo LP to the one he has brought out, since his Transatlantic work has been all tunes whereas this was more a collection of his songs. Various musicians and vocalists guested, including Gallagher & Lyle, and it was eventually decided to put it out under the band’s name as they owed an album to Island.

Swarb is determined to keep playing and if possible to keep Fairport going too.

‘I’m 35 now and I’ll still be playing at 70 if I live that long. And if the band is still going that’s fine with me. I hope it is.

‘No-one is going to take me off the road. That’s what I live doing, going out and playing. I hope to do it till the day I die.’

As well as his position of village fiddler and wandering minstrel, he does have another ace up his sleeve, as an actor.

‘I play a private eye in the latest film,’ he smiles. ‘Last time I played a kidnapper.’

Will he have to have his hair cut for the part? ‘Not ruddy likely. They’ll have to pay me three times as much if they do.’

His first film part was something of an obvious piece of casting as fiddler in the film of Thomas Hardy’s Far from the madding crowd, with him wearing a beard and old hat and coat and without the characteristic fag drooping from his mouth.

‘They made me look older for that part.’ He says. ‘But I think that’s just what I’ll look like in a few years’ time.’

Last updated on 26 September 2002