Swan Arcade

Subject: Swan Arcade
From: GUEST,Gadaffi
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 11:23 AM

Swan Arcade were the most superlative unaccompanied group of the 1970s and 80s. They did 4 vinyl albums to my knowledge, 1 CD of 'standards', and a cassette (?) Anybody out there know of the latter? And, of course, Blue Murder mk. 1.

Whatever happened to Dave and Heather Brady? Are they still performing?

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: greg stephens
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 11:36 AM

Lats time I saw Dave Brady he was running a superior B@B in Raveglass, as far as I recall, back in the 80's.

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: Michael
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 01:52 PM

The casette is 'Nothing Blue', 'A Sygnet Records production, recorded May 1988 at Starling Studios.Sygnet records is a subsisiary of Blue Murder Co-operative'
Tracks: Babylon, Children's Crusade, Bitter Fruit, Roll Alabama, Little Maiden, The Brigh Shining Morning, Foster's Mill, Rolling Home, Palms of Victory, The Rainbow, Grey Funnel Line, Last Valentine's Day, Further Along, The Battle of Sowerby Bridge, Mercedes Benz.

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: Troll
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 01:58 PM

Last I heard, Dave was working for the Fringe Festival in Edinborough. Some sort of administrator I was told. Heather was active in local politics down in England but that was several years earlier. I haven't seen them in years.

We used to stay with them for a few days when we went to England in the late '80's. That was after they sold the B&B.

troll

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: KathWestra
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 03:13 PM

Some of this stuff has been reissued on CDs, and it's great for those of us who loved (and STILL love!) the music of Swan Arcade. Check with Jim and Georgina Boyes and the Coope, Boyes & Simpson/NoMasters Cooperative website. I think you'll find some of this reissued material there. Great stuff, for sure!!!

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 05:40 PM

Or check with CAMSCO. (when will they ever learn?) There are at least 2 CDs--Round Again and Full Circle. I stock both.

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 06:33 PM

they were nice people too!

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: Stewie
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 06:50 PM

I have a 1976 vinyl album that includes 6 of the songs listed above for the cassette. It was recorded at Fendal Studio Loenen & Leadersound Studio, Greetland in Sept 1976: Swan Arcade 'Matchless' Stoof Records MU 7428 [Engineered by Jan Kranendonk and Bill Leader]. As well as the Swan Arcade line-up, it includes a swag of Dutch musicians on vocals and brass on a few of the tracks.

Tracks: Babylon; Valerio; Foster's Mill; Further along; The Rainbow; Vandiemans Land (sic); Lowlands of Holland; Mercedes Benz; Little Maiden; Baron of Brackley; Down in the valley to pray; Trimdon Grange explosion.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: GUEST,padgett (at home)
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 07:08 PM

Dave Brady minus an arm and singing higher with each pint in his rough edged Bradfordian accent was another one of the early trad singers who used to frequent the Yorkshire folk clubs in the 70s and 80s
Battle of Sowerby Bridge in particular and Fosters Mill and I remember him singing Arthur Hollandine, which must have taken 10 minutes. Some of the stuff I think pinched from or pointed to by the Cropper lads [Rennie Pickles, Bob Spray~ both no longer with us and Jim Potter who lives half a mile from me]

I defy anyone not to have been forced to join in Swam Arcades' infection gusto chorus singing by Dave Brady's sheer enthusiasm and bad tempered 'sing yer bu--ers encouragement'

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: GUEST,MC Fat
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 07:59 PM

I believe Mr Brady is a 'roadie' with the Scottish National Opera or something like that whether he is still singing i'm not sure

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: Boab
Date: 18 Mar 05 - 03:35 AM

My fondest Dave Brady memory is of the lad himself arriving in Hexham folk club in a FULL SUIT OF ARMOUR!!

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser)
Date: 18 Mar 05 - 06:29 PM

I remember them 'going electric'. Not a pretty sight...

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: GUEST,padgett (at home)
Date: 19 Mar 05 - 01:21 AM

I remember them on stage with the Watersons as Blue Murder, I think at Wath and it was!!

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: FG180
Date: 19 Mar 05 - 04:18 PM

I remember Dave on a cerpet stall at Newcastle quay market. The deal was, you buy it and he would fit it!!!. And he did.

   John.

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 12 Apr 14 - 02:47 PM

Dave Brady (RIP) came north most weeks to sell carpets in northeast markets. Newcastle Quayside Sunday, Darlington Hexham & Stockton after that.
He had a good spot on the Quayside & one day he was late getting there & an Asian trader took his spot. He was warned what would happen if Dave arrived - he didn't move, and sure enough the trader and all his goods finished up in the Tyne, which was very smelly in the 60s.
Swan arcade often did the Marsden Inn club in South Shields & he had a disconcerting habit (espcially for the more genteel ladies) of using his one arm to scratch his goolies while on stage.
Think it was after we (the Marsden Rattlers) did the Topic club in Bradford that we stayed with him in Cullingworth & I and my wife got a very cheap carpet to take back to the Northeast!- that must have been about 1970, I'd guess.

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: Vic Smith
Date: 12 Apr 14 - 03:30 PM

Jim Bainbridge wrote -
"- that must have been about 1970, I'd guess."

.... as must be this story. The Bradys were at the TMSA festival in Blairgowrie and by the time the late, late session was over considerable amounts of drink had been taken and attitudes towards drink and drive were much more lax back then. Dave offered Tina and I a lift back to the campsite way back up the River Ericht. He started his car and could only get the side lights, not the headlights to go on.
"I can't see where the bloody hell I'm going" said Dave as he leaned across to change gear. It was a column gear change on the other side from his missing arm.
Aaaaarrgh!!! What were we all thinking of?

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: Leadfingers
Date: 12 Apr 14 - 04:21 PM

Dave's Gaurdian Obit - http://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/jun/27/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries

I have two major memories - Dave playing a concertina , with one end strapped to his thigh - Must have been a duet , I suppose . The other is Dave and Martin Carthy singing together at Bracknel in an Oversize Jacket , with Carthy picking and Dave chording .

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 12 Apr 14 - 08:44 PM

Strangely no mention of the third member of Swan Arcade Jim Boyes.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 13 Apr 14 - 01:35 AM

There was a certain influence of Young Tradition on SA -- Royston Wood replaced Jim Boyes at some point in the group's history, while Dave, for all the difference in accent, had a timbre to his voice not a million miles from the quasi-falsetto Bellamy 'bleat'.
I once played Peter Bellamy, staying over with us after a Cambridge gig, the opening track of their first Trailer record, Last Valentine's Day. "I don't remember us recording that track." was Pete's response.

~M~

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: r.padgett
Date: 13 Apr 14 - 04:18 AM

some other bits, Dave Brady real name Bradley!
Heather taught German I believe,

Saw Royston Wood as 3rd member who was a brilliant bass harmoniser at Barnsley Civic

Royston died pushing a car off the "freeway" in US

Heather (of Young Tradition with RW and Pete Bellamy still alive in US)

Jim Boyes very active with Coope Boyes and Simpson, and I think now living in Belgium with Georgina
Ray

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 13 Apr 14 - 09:32 AM

Heather became Lord Mayor of Carlisle at one time.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: GUEST,Guest TF
Date: 13 Apr 14 - 10:55 AM

Not quite on the scale of Spinal Tap drummers but Bass ends with SA were a bit interchangeable, Brian Miller replaced Royston.

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: Surreysinger
Date: 13 Apr 14 - 04:38 PM

Leadfingers - re the matter of the concertina, yes it was a Maccann duet, not that I ever saw it. I was told on good authority (one Ralph Jordan late of this parish) that it was an Edeophone.

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Apr 14 - 04:39 PM

Heather Wood wrote the full version of "the hedgehog can never be buggered at all" alluded to many times by Terry Pratchett.

Not to be confused with Incredible String Band's Hedgehog Song, which was a bit different.

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 14 Apr 14 - 04:18 AM

Am I missing something ? what has Heather Wood got to do with Swan Arcade ?

Dave H

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 14 Apr 14 - 04:55 AM

Some confusion with Heather Brady, I suspect. Odd that the female component of two such not dissimilar in style and delivery trios should both have been called Heather.

~M~

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: GUEST,padgett
Date: 14 Apr 14 - 05:54 AM

Yep sorry about that, two Heathers bugged me too ~ see my earlier post

RW (Heather Wood no relation[YT] and Heather Brady [SA])

Ray

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: Howard Jones
Date: 14 Apr 14 - 03:52 PM

Amusing as the hedgehog song linked to above may be, surely the authentic version is the treatise on animal behaviour, to the tune of the Eton Boating Song, which starts with the sexual life of the camel.


In the process of civilization,
From anthropoid ape down to man,
It is generally held that the Navy,
Has buggered whatever it can.
Yet recent extensive researches,
By Darwin and Huxley and Hall,
Have conclusively proved that the hedgehog,
Has never been buggered at all.

We therefore believe our conclusion,
Is incontrovertibly shown
That comparative shipboard safety,
Is enjoyed by the hedgehog alone,
Oh why don't they do it at Spithead,
As they do it at Harvard and Yale,
And likewise at Oxford and Cambridge,
By shaving the spines off its tail?

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: GUEST,Meg Mogwai
Date: 15 Jun 15 - 02:53 AM

Des anyone remember a song about Caged lions?

'We are not bound, we are not free'

'And all the wealth we help to find, just help to keep us more confined'

I think it's by Swan Arcade... I really want a copy and have tried googling it but not come up with anything!

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: Einsetumadur
Date: 13 Feb 18 - 03:20 PM

Here's the Swan Arcade version of "Babylon" featuring Royston Wood from the 1973 BBC session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsZScD5bF1M&feature=youtu.be

enjoy :)

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 13 Feb 18 - 04:07 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsZScD5bF1M&feature=youtu.be

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: Brian Peters
Date: 14 Feb 18 - 11:26 AM

Bloody hell, Einsetumadur, that is fantastic! Much better than the version on 'Matchless', which I know well and always enjoyed. I like the slower pace, the more fluid lines, and the way they linger on the discord.

There's a sneery review on Discogs which says that SA were "not the most creative band on the planet". I think in terms of unaccompanied harmony in a 'folk' group they probably were.

Many thanks.

Subject: RE: Swan Arcade
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 14 Feb 18 - 12:03 PM

If you're still searching, Meg Mogwai, you can find Caged Lions on Out' The Blue by Jim Boyes, NMVCD1, the first release by No Masters Voice.

EMI's corporate lawyers took exception to the name No Masters Voice, so it was shortened to just No Masters.