I recently dug out some aging slides taken at a Carthy & Swarb gig at Rotherham Arts Centre on 23 September 1989. They’re not the best quality but I thought they would be worth sharing for reasons of historic interest.
This was part of the second annual UK tour (the ‘Second Farewell Tour”) following on from the previous year’s reunion gigs. Support was by Dave Burland.
I made a recording of the complete show and although the only copy was stolen many years ago I still have a note of the set list:
Here’s a little something to keep you occupied during lockdown.
“Versions” is a career-spanning Spotify playlist showcasing different versions of the same, similar or related songs from Martin Carthy’s solo, duo and band recordings.
June’s #MC50 YouTube video, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Martin Carthy’s debut solo album, is a session recorded by Martin and Dave Swarbrick in October 1988 at the BBC Pebble Mill studios for the BBC Folk On Two show.
The session was recorded half way through their First Farewell Tour – their first major set of gigs since they had split in 1969 – and includes a number of rare or unique recordings. It was broadcast on 12 October 1988 on BBC Radio 2 and the photos are from their gig in Rotherham the following night (not Sheffield, as the broadcast suggests).
As mentioned in an earlier post, Martin has recently been playing his new PRS guitar on tour with Dave Swarbrick. I got a chance to see the pair at the Royal Northern College of Musicin Manchester and, as usual, took a few shots of the gig. Afterwards Martin was kind enough to sit for a moment while I took a few shots of him playing the new instrument and some close-ups that I’ve used to update the earlier post.
Posted by Kevin Boyd 
Come Sing It Plain... 