Blue Murder (folk)

Blue Murder
Blue Murder live at Montgomery Hall, Wath-upon-Dearne, 1 November 1987. Left to Right: Heather Brady, Lal Waterson, Rachel Waterson, Norma Waterson, Martin Carthy, Mike Waterson, Dave Brady, Jim Boyes. Photograph by Kevin Boyd.
Background information
Origin	England
Genres	English Folk music A cappella Country Gospel
Years active	1987–1988, 1994, 2000-present
Labels	Topic
Associated acts	The Watersons Waterson–Carthy Coope Boyes and Simpson Swan Arcade Norma Waterson Martin Carthy Lal Waterson Eliza Carthy The Waterdaughters
Website	Blue Murder
Members	Norma Waterson Jim Boyes Martin Carthy Barry Coope Lester Simpson Maria Gilhooley
Past members	Heather Brady Dave Brady Lal Waterson Rachel Waterson Eliza Carthy Mike Waterson

Blue Murder is an occasional English folk supergroup, consisting at various times of various members of Swan Arcade, Coope Boyes and Simpson, Waterson–Carthy and The Watersons.

Dave and Heather Brady and Jim Boyes of Swan Arcade and The Watersons' Norma and Lal Waterson gathered at 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 invited The Watersons and Swan Arcade to appear at Bracknell Festival, separately and together. The collective group was named "Blue Murder" by Martin Carthy. The line up for the festival was: Martin Carthy, with Norma, Lal, Rachel and Mike Waterson, plus Heather Brady, Dave Brady and Jim Boyes.

This version of Blue Murder performed in 1987 and 1988 at Wath upon Dearne in South Yorkshire, at The Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, at a variety of British festivals, and at the Brossella Festival in Brussels. A demo was put together from their Wath concert performance and a track from a concert in Bracknell 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 meanwhile had replaced Rachel Waterson in the Watersons.