Live Dates-Ben Calvert (& The Swifts)

Past Events
Sunday 30th October
Hare & Hounds, Birmingham.
The Travelling Band, Burnside, Ben Calvert & The Swifts

Saturday 29th October
Bank Street Gallery, Kirriemuir, Scotland
Ben solo, Courtnay Stuart supports.

Sunday 23rd October
Moon & Sixpence, Glossop
Ben Calvert & The Swifts, + Support.

Saturday 22nd October
The Continental, Preston
David Rybka & The Victorian Dad Band, Ben Calvert & The Swifts, Unconscious Jungle

Friday 21st October
Vinyl Bar, Liverpool.
The Romleys, Ben Calvert & The Swifts, TBC, TBC.
Saturday 1st October

Wednesday 19th October
The Musician, Leicester
Elizabeth Cornish, Ben Calvert & The Swifts, Martin Luke Brown, Nancy Dawkins

Hausmunik, Munich, Germany
Gurdan Thomas, Ben Calvert & Hannah Lawson.

Sunday 11th September
Bohemian Jukebox Sunday Social, The Bull’s Head, Moseley, Birmingham
Steve Ison, Joe BuzFuz, Ben Calvert, Theatre of the Absurd.

Friday 9th September
The Grain Barge, Bristol
Ben Calvert & The Swifts, My Two Toms, Finklebone

Friday 2nd September
Moseley Park, Birmingham
Moseley Folk Festival (Bohemian Jukebox Stage, solo)
5pm

Saturday 3rd September
Moseley Park, Birmingham
Moseley Folk Festival, (Lunar Stage with The Swifts)
Weekend ticket £79. (Villagers, Willy Mason, Stornoway, Badly Drawn Boy, Billy Bragg.)
11:10am

Spiritual song Ides of March made it’s return to holy settings at St Mary Magdelene Church for The Nick Drake Tribute Gathering on Saturday 23rd July.

Wednesday 17th August
The Yardbird, Birmingham
Ben Calvert & The Swifts, Dust Motes, Julianna Bastock, Andy Flynn
Free in

Wednesday 27th July
London
Station Sessions Festival, St Pancras Station
6pm-7pm. Free
Two Spot Gobi, Ben Calvert & The Swifts

Saturday 23rd July
Tanworth-in-Arden
The Nick Drake Tribute Gathering, St Mary Magdalene Church,
4:30pm doors, Ben on at 6pm.

Sunday 10th July
The Bohemian Jukebox Sunday Social, The Bull’s Head, Moseley, Birmingham.
(Dirty Old Folkers, Ben Calvert, David Leach, Dave Bodisson)
4pm-8pm Free Entry

Wednesday 29th June
River Rea Roots at The Tower of Song, Parkview Trading Estate
107 Pershore Road South, Birmingham, B30 3JX.
10pm. (Open mic before and after) By donation.

Good to catch up with some good ol’ boys over whisky at the Erland & The Carnival show. Hannah Peel has got some lovely prints, so look ‘er up and peruse her wares…
Here’s the next show on Friday 15th April. It’s me playing solo. in-store at We Are Birmingham. Hannah might play on a couple of tunes. A free event and…Bring Your Own Booze!

The Symphony Hall gig was a joy to play. The first act followed our hero through the seasons and between Birmingham and London by luxury train and budget bus only for him to find himself in a snowfield being hunted from a distance by a sniper. The second act was for and about lovers and circuses and ended with one of our own songs which we cheekily passed off as a Beatles cover! Here’s to the next show: As fate would have it, over the last year we’ve kept bumping into Erland and The Carnival here, there and everywhere. With joint inspirations coming from the darker side of the carnival, psychedelia and both sharing spooked atmospherics ,it was only a matter of time before we found ourselves on the same bill. Hannah Peel will also appear as the main support. Tickets from the good people at Moseley Folk.

Our next show at The Symphony Hall is a bit special.

For this Folk for Free gig we’re going to weave our way through 90 minutes of songs and sounds with the band in different formations. So that’ll be me, Hannah Lawson, Dave McCabe and Carlo Solazzo together for the first time since September.

We may even get the Stylophone and the drumming monkey out, and I may make my debut playing keyboard in front of alive audience. We might make Hannah learn guitar.

We’ll definitely use the grand piano for some never-performed-before songs in the key of spooky…

It’s an early evening gig, so it’s perfect to come to post-office if you work in Birmingham City Centre. It’s also perfect timing for work-shy slackers, the self-employed, students and the homeless to make the gig. We’ll see you all there.

So that’s Thursday 24th February at 5:30pm.
Symphony Hall, Level 3 Bar, Broad Street, Birmingham
Set yr fancy virtual driving dashboard atlas to: B1 2EA
‘Phone them at 0121 780 3333

Hannah and I had a gas playing support to the Jeffrey Lewis & Peter Stampfel Folk Band on January 20th.
I helped Peter out with some technical problems involving a sparking lead, and he and Hannah talked about low G strings! (They both play the violin). Jeff enlightened me as to the French Revolution being the father of all modern revolutions. I told him about Viz.