The Old Swan Band Tunebook presents a selection of 191 traditional tunes from Britain, Ireland, Mainland Europe, North America and Australia played and recorded by the band over five decades. The tunes are accompanied by interesting footnotes as to there origins. The book is ideal for musicians seeking repertoire for English pub sessions and ceilidh bands.
 
Foreword by Derel Schofield
Undoubtedly, The Old Swan Band has exerted an enormous influence on the playing of English dance music over the last half century. Band founders, Rod and Danny Stradling, heard the 1965 limited-issue LP English Country Music, featuring traditional players such as Walter and Daisy Bulwer, and they took that style of playing into the London-based quartet, Oak, with Tony Engle and Peta Webb. When they moved to Cricklade, they enthused like-minded musicians and formed Old Swan. Meanwhile that 1965 album and Oak’s 1971 Welcome to Our Fair LP provided inspiration for London musicians who formed Flowers and Frolics, and similar attitudes and styles of playing were taken up by Umps and Dumps and New Victory Band. Critical to spreading the tunes and the style of performance to other musicians were the English Country Music Weekends, started by the Old Swan Band and held, initially, in Cricklade. 
 
Hitherto, the prevailing repertoire and style of playing ‘English’ dance music was Irish and Scottish. The traditional dances had been published by the EFDSS in the Community Dance Manuals, but the music failed to match the dances. The rejection of Celtic music in favour of English tunes and style was not for overtly nationalistic reasons. It was simply a case of raising the profile of music that had been neglected. Very soon there was a realisation that traditional tunes never did recognise national borders, and The Old Swan Band added to this process by including tunes from other musical cultures, mostly learned from recordings or personal contact. Crucially, all the tunes were played in the band’s distinctive style, which was more rhythmic and slower than what had gone before. This gave the dancers a chance to step to the dances, rather than simply walk. Melodeon rather than accordion. Polkas rather than reels – loudly proclaimed in the title of their first album: No Reels. In time, the style changed: the music was played a little faster, the melodeon disappeared when Rod and Danny left, to be replaced by a wall of fiddles, and brass was introduced. Elements of these style developments can now be seen in ceilidh bands across the country. This collection of tunes recognises the special and continuing influence of The Old Swan Band.              Derek Schofield - October 2024
 
The Old Swan Band
 
Old Swan started life in 1974 as ‘The Cotswold Liberation Front’ and members included Bernie Cherry, Robin Lister, Rod and Danny Stradling, Martin Brinsford, and the incredibly young Fraser sisters, Fi chaperoning the 14 year old Jo. It was one element of the new liberation movement for English music – a hint of a tidal reverse against the flood of English musicians who played Celtic music and ignored or were ignorant of the treasury of English tunes that existed not only in written form but also as a living tradition. The band was named after the pub in Cheltenham High Street where it first got together to play music. The pub morphed into an Irish theme pub, O’Hagan’s, in 1995 before becoming The Swan in 2003.
 
There were some early changes in line-up during the first seven years as a few people left and others took their places but a major sea change occurred in 1982 when Rod and Danny Stradling left the band. Considering them irreplaceable in their roles, particularly Rod’s melodeon lead, the decision was made to go for an all fiddle line up which created another unique sound delivered by founder member Fi, joined by the formidable talents of Paul Burgess and Flos Headford, leaders in the field of English fiddling. John Adams joined the brass section after the demise of The New Victory Band, Richard Valentine moved off the piano stool in favour of Heather Horsley and Neil Gledhill was press-ganged into the band playing the rarely heard bass sax. Somewhere in the middle of these changes, a version of the band made an EP record (1983) and that was the last studio recording until the band entered the digital age in 2004.
 
The early repertoire was selected from a range of traditional players still then active across the southern counties of England. - players like Bob Cann in Devon, Walter & Daisy Bulwer and Oscar Woods in East Anglia, and Scan Tester in Sussex. Much use was made of Cecil Sharp’s collecting, particularly his work in the Cotswolds and The Forest of Dean. As the years have advanced the scope of the repertoire has widened to include tunes from the rest of the British Isles, from continental Europe and Scandinavia, from across the pond in America and from down under - Australia. Although some of the tunes were from other cultures they were carefully selected to integrate into the band’s particular English style, and also to serve their prime purpose - dancing.
 
In the early days The Old Swan’s band style was deliberately slow in an effort to encourage dancers to dance and the band was criticised greatly by less tolerant members of the English Folk Dance and Song Society for ‘playing the wrong tunes for the dances, playing too slow, changing tunes, using melodeons instead of ‘proper’ instruments like accordions and worst sin of all, using brass instruments. The brass has become a feature of the band’s sound, the melodeon has given way to the fiddles which bring their own dynamic to the sound, and over the years the tempos of the tunes has quickened to suit the needs of the dancing audience. Looking at the notes on the page you won’t appreciate the harmonica, piano and percussion that enhances the tunes, but the later recordings are mostly still available should you wish to listen.
 
We present here a compendium of all the dance tunes that appear on The Old Swan Band recordings since the first ground breaking vinyl album, No Reels, in 1977.
 
No Reels - Free Reed FRR011. 1977
Old Swan Brand - Free Reed FRR028 1979
Gamesters, Pickpockets and Harlots - 
Dingles Records DIN322
The Old Swan Band (EP) - Waterfront WFEP04
Still Swanning (after all the time) - 
selections re-released on CD - Free Reed FRCD31
Swan Upmanship - Wildgoose Studios 2004
Swan for the Money - Wildgoose Studios 2009
Fortissimo - Wildgoose Studios 2014
Fortyfived - Wildgoose Studios 2019