John Kirkpatrick

To the British Music Experience exhibition tonight for a celebration of one of the giants of English traditional music, indeed one of the great musicians of any genre - fiddle player extraordinaire Dave Swarbrick, who died in 2016.

Swarb had a long and storied career but is best known for his work with Fairport Convention and as a duo with Martin Carthy, with whom he played, off and on, from 1962 onwards. I was lucky enough to see him perform on a handful of occasions, including once with Carthy (a show at which Blip legend Earthdreamer was also in attendance!).

Here’s a clip of Swarb back in 1981, playing with his former Fairport bandmate, the alarmingly-besuited Simon Nicol (a previous Blip subject of mine... https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2272682392403578753 ) on the televisual atrocity that was ‘Pebble Mill at One’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo8eoh4yKAI

Tonight’s band featured members of the Jason Wilson Band from Canada (with whom Swarb recorded and toured towards the end of his life), Swarb’s nephew Simon Swarbrick (an extremely talented fiddle player in his own right), the legendary Martin Carthy himself (who was the headline act at the very first folk gig I ever went to, at The Willows Folk Club in Arundel, West Sussex when I was 17, and whom I’ve seen many times since over the years!) and today’s Blip subject, the mighty John Kirkpatrick!

Kirkpatrick has long been the English melodeon/Anglo concertina/button accordion player of choice for many a luminary of the folk/rock scene, as well as a respected performer in his own right, and sometime-member of bands including Steeleye Span, the Albion Band, Brass Monkey and Band of Hope - and has played on many of my favourite albums over the years.

Highlights of tonight’s show, for me, were Sandy Denny’s song ‘It Suits Me Well’, sung beautifully by percussionist Zaynab Wilson; the Dave Swarbrick/Richard Thompson classics ‘Now Be Thankful’ and ‘Crazy Man Michael’, sung equally beautifully by John Kirkpatrick; a jazzy take on the traditional ballad ‘Matty Groves’; Martin Carthy’s rendition of the English Civil War song ‘Dominion of the Sword’; Simon Swarbrick’s effects-heavy fiddle playing on the old Scottish ballad ‘Sir Patrick Spens’; and ‘The Lark in the Morning’ medley of traditional tunes from Fairport’s classic 1969 album, ‘Liege and Lief’. Cracking stuff!

For an introduction to John Kirkpatrick’s squeezebox playing, why not check out his appearances on the following tracks...

Sandy Denny ‘It Suits Me Well’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzocB_8mRY

Richard Thompson ‘The New St George’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH3Xt9j4WnA

Steeleye Span ‘Treadmill Song’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk17sy2cMWE - that’s a rather younger John in the picture (second from the left) alongside Martin Carthy (third left)

Or, for a more left-field choice, Pere Ubu ‘Worlds in Collision’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3E31prLYDs

(PS Another highlight of my evening came just before the show started. I noticed Martin Carthy, sporting one of his trademark terrible Hawaiian shirts (sorry Martin!), spending quite a long time admiring a display of T-Rex legend Marc Bolan’s stage-wear. Can we expect a glam-inspired change of image from Carthy in the near future?!)