How I heard the news - Press and Journal (Aberdeen) 21 Apr 1999

Death report shocks singer

SHOCKED folk musician DaveSwarbrick managed a joke afterreading mistaken reports of his own death. The obituary of Swarbrick,former violinist with FairportConvention, was published as the musician recovered after a serious illness in hospital near his Coventry home.
"Tell everyone it's not the first time I have died in Coventry," the former Fairport Convention violin player told his wife, Jill.
Jill said her husband had just been transferred from intensive care to a general ward in a Walsgrave hospital after a four-week battle with a chest infection. "He read the obituary and didn't quarrel with any of the spellings or the facts -apart from the obvious." she said."He's trying to see the funnyy side but it is very upsetting.
"The phone has been red hot with all the musicians who know him ringing up to find out how he died and offer their support."
A spokesman for the Daily Telegraph, which carried the obituary, said: "I have spoken to Mrs Swarbrick and apologisedto her, and we will be printing a full apology." Swarbrick' 58, a foriffidablefigure on the British folk scene for four decades, is best known for his collaborations with Martin Carthy and his part in Fairport Convention in the 70s and 80s.
He left the electric folk group in 1984 but has continued to perform on the acoustic violin around the world. Swarbrick, who has suffered from emphysema for some years, was in Germany when hewas struck by illness five weeks ago.
Former Fairport Convention colleague Dave Pegg said he had also been inundated with calls.
He added: "It is a glowing obituary and Dave will he very pleased with what they have said but it is unbelievable it has been published now."

(moral: tell people yopu appreciate them now, while they're alive)