Blowzabella

Blowzabella

photo: P. Gamble.

Formed in 1978 by a group of instrument - making students at the London College of Furniture. From the beginning Blowzabella has always been heavily influenced by the European bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy tradition, particularly that emanating from central France. Alongside this, however, the band maintained a significant repertoire of English traditional and self–composed traditional style music.

During the 1980's the group settled on a core line-up of Paul James (bagpipes, sax, vocals), Cliff Stapleton on hurdy-gurdy (replaced by Nigel Eaton), Dave Shepherd (fiddle), and basoon player and percussionist Dave Armitage (replaced by Ian Luff on bass guitar), frequently augmented by founder member Jon Swayne (bagpipes, sax) and Dave Roberts (melodeon). This line-up established itself as a first class dance band, but was a major presence on the concert scene as well, particularly after Jo Freya (vocals, sax) joined. This, combined with the stunning virtuoso playing of Nigel Eaton (hurdy–gurdy) backed up by the solid musicianship of Ian Luff, Dave Shepherd, and Paul James, created a unique ensemble which brought a much needed breath of fresh air to the U. K. folk scene.

Several European tours established Blowzabella as a major group on the folk/roots scene, and the band also toured in Brazil and West Africa. Andy Cutting, who joined the band in 1989, added further to the display of virtuosity with his European influenced diatonic accordeon playing.Dave Shepherd left in 1989 and Jon Swayne rejoined as a full–time member but the band split in 1990. Since 1995 five members (Jon Swayne, Dave Shepherd, Nigel Eaton, Ian Luff and Andy Cutting) have played together on an occasional basis. Dave left this line-up in 2002 to concentrate on his other projects.

The band sound was initially dominated by drone accompaniments. Over the years, however, with Dave Shepherd’s fiddle chords, Ian Luff’s driving bass lines, and finally the use of three saxophones, Blowzabella moved more and more towards jazz/rock influenced harmonic progressions. This was the archetypal Blowzabella ‘wall of sound’ exemplified on the band’s most acclaimed recording ‘ Vanilla’ (Topic, Special Delivery). The influence of the band on the newest generation of performers worldwide is immense.

In 2003 seven former members (Jon Swayne, Paul James, Dave Shepherd, Nigel Eaton, Ian Luff, Jo Freya and Andy Cutting) are getting together to celebrate 25 years of Blowzabella. Details of the gigs can be found by clicking here.