Joe Broughton

ABOVE: Balkan Divorce Dance (Lines/Broughton Quartet)BELOW: Minor Swing (The Bright Size Gypsies)

I was 4 years old and playing pots and pans along with Ben my big brother. www.benandjoebroughton.co.uk He sang the blues and played guitar, clearly having the upper hand on life experience at 9 years old. We busked the bus queues at Cambridge folk festival. I tried to progress to Drum Kit but at 5 I was quickly distracted by Dave Swarbrick and was kidnapped in to the folk scene forever. I took up classical violin lessons to get the techniques but my heart was in folk as well as the Blues, Rock and Jazz that my Dad brought us up on. Playing the guitar, mandolin, piano and bass just developed more like hobbies. Me and Ben started playing clubs when I was 9 and we got our first major festival when I was 14. Although we had made appearances as part of other acts at places like the assembly rooms at Edinburgh Festival and the opera house in Leeds. In the mean time I'd been working in the circus. After a chance meeting with a magician in 1987 I became his apprentice which lead me to meet the performers I ended up working with. Made it to 5 balls and 4 clubs, unicycles so tall that jumping off them probably contributed to my 2 back operations, and the usual fire, devil sticks, diabalo...Anyway, I retired at 15 as I wanted to concentrate on music (and not injure myself so often - as it turns out I now realise that it's more dangerous to hang around musicians). The poetry writing tailed off too - I'd had work published in two books but music was taking over. The BBC caught me in this phase of wanting to do everything and made a short film about me when I was 13. Must upload that sometime....or maybe not. I went off to study composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire and on leaving was made an honorary member which means I have more letters after my name without doing anymore work. Joined the legendary Albion Band in 1997 and toured with them for about six years. I started teaching composition and folk music at the Conservatoire and got the most enjoyable band in the universe set up. The Conservatoire Folk Ensemble at present has around 70 members and it is a riot. www.myspace.com/folkensemble . We brought out a DVD a few years ago and hopefully there's going to be an album in 2009...I started playing with the fantastic Kevin Dempsey in 2000 as well. He's a long term hero of mine, an outstanding and truly unique guitarist. www.dempseybroughton.com and I’ve been doing more work in my studio recently. Edited and mixed the new Swabrick/Carthy album, produced the Uiscedwr album "Circle" as well as Chris While's "Rosella Red" and Darren Black's "Thinkers and Fools" amongst others. Anyway, I think that’s about it other than to say that I brought out a book of tunes and poems in 1999 and started making albums and doing session work in 1994. Here's some of the CDs (there's more info on my website - www.joebroughton.com ): Sound Engine ///...the continuing adventures of Ben and Joe Broughton ///me and my brother - live ///The Mortgage Years ///Every Other World ///Freehand ///The Acoustic Years ///Happy Accident ///Before Us Stands Yesterday ///Christmas Album ///Road Movies ///An Evening with the Albion Band ///The HTD Years ///Wings ///Good Grief ///A Gypsy Life ///Somewhere in the Stars ///Liacht-Light ///Perfect Mistake ///Against The Wall ///Albion Heart (compilation) ///No Surrender ///Someone Was Calling ///Albion Sunrise ///Human Nature ///Andar Per Musica 03 ///The Ridge Riders ///Clean Feet ///The Bridge ///Tenacious ///Street Cries ///The Guv'nor 5 ///Coda ///Born Blue ///Absent Friends ///The Great Unknown ///Goleuadau Sir Fôn ///Common Ground ///Georgia On Our Mind ///Heart Of England Vol.1 & 2 ///A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action ///The Skippers Daughter ///My Arms Are A Cradle ///The Bare Branch ///A Chance To Dance ///The Ultimate in Dance Collections…………………