Albums
The title of the Old Swan Band's first album, released in 1976, was their manifesto – "No Reels". This was a way of saying you would not find fancy reels and jigs or any frantically paced tunes here. In their wake came several other folk dance bands that combined brass instruments with fiddles - the New Victory Band, the Cock and Bull Band and Ramsbottom.
After two more albums Rod and Danny Stradling left the band. The band became fiddle-dominated and after recording an EP in 1983, did not return to the recording studio until 2004 – a gap of twenty-one years, during which time the band's members also worked on other projects and with other bands.
The 2004 album, Swan-Upmanship was, as before, decidedly non-Celtic – almost all the tunes were drawn from the English tradition. The line-up on this recording was John Adams (trombone, fiddle), Martin Brinsford (percussion), Paul Burgess (fiddle), Fi Fraser (fiddle), Jo Freya (tenor saxophone, whistle), Neil Gledhill (bass saxophone), Flos Headford (fiddle) and Heather Horsley (keyboard).
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