Sergeant Buzfuz
| Sergeant Buzfuz | |
|---|---|
| Genres | Alternative rock, indie folk, psychedelic pop, anti-folk |
| Years active | 1993-present |
| Labels | Blang, Audio Gland |
| Associated acts | Death in Vegas, Rose McDowall, David Cronenberg's Wife, Filthy Pedro |
| Website | Official website |
| Members | Joe Murphy William Barr Ian Button Joss Cope Stu Crane Polly MacLean Eilish McCracken |
| Past members | Kate Arnold George Brufton Richard Cahill Jon Clayton Andy Crowe Cherrie Fox Stephen Gilchrist John Paul Jones Rich Keeble Martin Parker Chris Thomas Tim Victor |
Sergeant Buzfuz are a seven-piece band based in London. Their musical style has been referred to as indie folk,psychedelic pop and anti-folk. They take their name from a character in The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. The current line up consists of core member Joe Murphy (vocals, guitar), Eilish McCracken (fiddle, flute, whistle), William Barr (mandolin), Ian Button (drums), Polly MacLean (backing vocals), Joss Cope (bass) and Stu Crane (guitar). To date the band have released six studio albums, one extended play (EP), and seven singles.
The band was originally formed by Joe Murphy (vocals, guitar) in 1993 along with Chris Thomas (guitar), Cherrie Fox (drums) and Richard Cahill (bass). This incarnation of the band ceased performing in 1996, after which Murphy continued as a solo artist (still using the Sergeant Buzfuz name) on the single "Plugged In" (2001) and album Obsessive Compulsion Pour Homme (2001), on which Murphy played all instruments. Timothy Victor (Folk Orchestra, Broken Family Band, Chris T-T) would perform banjo with Murphy at this time.
The album Fire Horse (2004) was again mostly a solo recording but by the time of its release Sergeant Buzfuz were performing as a full band again with Kate Arnold on hammered dulcimer, Eilish McCracken (Rose McDowall) on violin, Jon Clayton (who has produced all Sergeant Buzfuz albums in his One Cat studio) on cello and Martin Parker on drums. This line-up recorded 2006's The Jewelled Carriageway. Timothy Victor contributed banjo to both Fire Horse and The Jewelled Carriageway. In 2008 Jon Clayton left to concentrate on his other many bands and was replaced by John Paul Jones (not to be confused with the Led Zeppelin bassist).
The band's fourth album was 2009's High Slang. During the recording of the album, Parker was ousted and replaced by Ian Button (Death in Vegas) on drums for the remainder of the recording. Rich Keeble took over the drum stool and William Barr joined on mandolin in time for the album's release, the new line-up recording BBC 6Music sessions for Tom Robinson (2008) and Marc Riley (2009). By the time the band recorded a second session for Tom Robinson in 2010, Keeble (now an actor) had left to be replaced by Ian Button, and Jones had been ousted and replaced with Stephen Gilchrist (Art Brut, Graham Coxon).
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