Blue Murder is an occasional English folk supergroup, consisting at various times of various members of

Swan Arcade Swan Arcade were a British folk music vocal music, vocal group formed in 1970. "A leading light of the British folk revival" they sang a wide variety of songs, including blues, pop and rock and roll, as well as traditional folk music, mostly pe ...

Coope Boyes and Simpson Coope Boyes and Simpson was an English vocal Folk music, folk trio, formed around 1990. Their sound was rich and often had unusual vocal harmonies. The group comprised singers Barry Coope, Jim Boyes (formerly of Swan Arcade) and Lester Simpson, ...

Waterson–Carthy Waterson:Carthy were an English folk group originally comprising Norma Waterson on vocals, her husband Martin Carthy on guitar and vocals and their daughter Eliza Carthy on fiddle and vocals. History The group had a repertoire of predominantly ...

and

The Watersons The Watersons were an English folk group from Hull, Yorkshire. They performed mainly traditional songs with little or no accompaniment. Their distinctive sound came from their closely woven harmonies. They have been called the "most famous f ...

. Dave and Heather Brady and Jim Boyes of Swan Arcade and The Watersons'

Norma Norma may refer to: * Norma (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) ** Norma Lizbeth Ramos, a Mexican bullying victim Astronomy *Norma (constellation) * 555 Norma, a minor asteroid * Cygnus Arm or Norma Arm, a spiral ...

and Lal Waterson gathered at

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, River Esk and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. From the Middle Ages, Whitby ...

Folk Week in August 1986 for a charity concert for the benefit of the local school. The ensemble, probably performing as The Boggle Hole Chorale, performed at the Festival's final ceilidh. In 1987,

Ian Anderson Ian Scott Anderson (born 10 August 1947) is a British musician best known for being the chief vocalist, Flute, flautist, and acoustic guitarist of the British rock band Jethro Tull (band), Jethro Tull. He is a multi-instrumentalist who also p ...

invited The Watersons and Swan Arcade to appear at Bracknell Festival, separately and together. The collective group was named "Blue Murder" by

Martin Carthy Martin Dominic Forbes Carthy MBE (born 21 May 1941) is an English singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in English folk music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, as well as later ar ...

. The line up for the festival was: Martin Carthy, with Norma, Lal,

Rachel Rachel () was a Bible, Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph (Genesis), Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban (Bible), Laban. Her older siste ...

and

Mike Waterson Michael Waterson (17 January 1941 – 22 June 2011) was an English writer, songwriter and folk singer. Biography Waterson was born in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. After being orphaned at an early age, he was brought up there, w ...

, plus Heather Brady, Dave Brady and Jim Boyes. This version of Blue Murder performed in 1987 and 1988 at

Wath upon Dearne Wath upon Dearne (shortened to Wath or often hyphenated) is a town south of the River Dearne in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, north of Rotherham and almost midway between Barnsley and Doncaster. It had a pop ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

, at The

Queen Elizabeth Hall The Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH) is a music venue on the South Bank in London, England, that hosts European classical music, classical, jazz, and avant-garde music, talks and dance performances. It was opened in 1967, with a concert conducted by ...

in London, at a variety of British festivals, and at the Brossella Festival in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. A demo was put together from their Wath concert performance and a track from a concert in

Bracknell Bracknell () is a town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Built-up Area, Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the borough of Bracknell Forest. It lies to the east of Re ...

appears on ''The Carthy Chronicles'' (Free Reed FRQCD-60), but this incarnation of the band made no studio recordings. In 1994, Blue Murder performed "I Bid You Goodnight" for a benefit album ''Out on the Rolling Sea''. By this time, Swan Arcade had split up, and Heather Brady was unavailable on the day of recording. Barry Coope and Lester Simpson of Coope Boyes and Simpson replaced the two Bradys.

Eliza Carthy Eliza Amy Forbes Carthy, MBE (born 23 August 1975) is an English folk musician known for both singing and playing the fiddle. She is the daughter of English folk musicians Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson. Life and career Carthy was born i ...

meanwhile had replaced Rachel Waterson in the Watersons. The third incarnation of the group began in 2000, following the death of Lal Waterson, when they appeared for a "Yorkshire Evening." They appeared at the Sidmouth Festival in 2001. A concert tour followed in 2002, along with the recording of their first (and thus far only) studio album, '' No One Stands Alone''. The line-up for 2000–2002 was Norma and Mike Waterson, Martin and Eliza Carthy, Barry Coope, Jim Boyes and Lester Simpson. This line up – occasionally minus Eliza Carthy when Blue Murder performances clashed with her other commitments – performed sporadically over the next few years, largely on the UK festival circuit. Eventually, Eliza was permanently replaced by Maria Gilhooley, Lal Waterson's daughter and occasional Watersons and

collaborator. On 23 November 2007 this line up made its debut concert appearance at the Met Theatre in

Bury, Greater Manchester Bury (, ) is a market town on the River Irwell in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. which had a population of 81,101 in 2021 while the wider borough had a population of 193,846. The town was originally part of the ...

Discography

* ''The Carthy Chronicles'' (Free Reed Records. Cat. No: FRQCD 60) 2001 *: 4-CD box set tracing the career of Martin Carthy includes one track by the original Blue Murder line-up, recorded live at Bracknell Festival 11 July 1987. *: ANC Song (Azicatal), Blue Murder (mk I): Heather Brady, Lal Waterson, Rachel Waterson, Norma Waterson, Martin Carthy, Mike Waterson, Dave Brady and Jim Boyes: vocals * ''Out on the Rolling Sea: A tribute to the music of Joseph Spence & the Pinder Family'' (Hokey Pokey Records. Cat. No: HPR 2004.2) 1994 *: Various artists

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

, including one track by Blue Murder. *: "I Bid You Goodnight," Blue Murder (mk II):: Eliza Carthy: lead vocals; Lal Waterson, Norma Waterson, Jim Boyes, Martin Carthy, Barry Coope, Lester Simpson and Mike Waterson: vocals * ''Shining Bright: The Songs of Lal & Mike Waterson'' (Topic Records. Cat. No: TSCD519) 2002 *: Various artists compilation including one track by Blue Murder (Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy, Norma Waterson, Jim Boyes and Barry Coope appear elsewhere on other tracks on this album). *: "Bright Phoebus," Blue Murder (mk III): Lester Simpson, Barry Coope, Jim Boyes, Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy, Norma Waterson, Mike Waterson: vocals; Martin Carthy: guitar, Lester Simpson:

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

* '' No One Stands Alone'' (Topic Records. Cat. No: TSCD537) 2002 * ''

Three Score and Ten ''Three Score and Ten: A Voice to the People'' is a multi-CD box set album issued by Topic Records in 2009 to celebrate 70 years as an independent British record label. The album consists of a hardback book containing the seven CDs and a pa ...

'',

Topic Records Topic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.M. Brocken ...

70-year anniversary boxed set included the title track from ''No One stands Alone'' as track twenty two on the seventh CD 2009

External links

Coope Boyes and Simpson's page on Blue Murder

Unofficial Blue Murder MySpace page

Official Waterson–Carthy website

Swan Arcade MySpace page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Murder English folk musical groups