Jackdaw with Crowbar are an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 multi-media indie band from Leamington Spa

Leamington Spa

Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or Leamington or Leam to locals, is a spa town in central Warwickshire, England. Formerly known as Leamington Priors, its expansion began following the popularisation of the medicinal qualities of its water by Dr Kerr in 1784, and by Dr Lambe...

. The band was formed in 1986 and signed to Ron Johnson Records

Ron Johnson Records

Ron Johnson Records was an UK independent record label based in Long Eaton operating between 1983 and 1988. The label contributed five tracks to the NME's C86 compilation. Run by Dave Parsons, the label released records by artists such as Big Flame, The Shrubs, A Witness, The Great Leap Forward,...

.

History

Jackdaw with Crowbar's original lineup comprised Tim Ellis, Fergus Durrant, Dave Tibbats, and Dan Morrison with Adam Sindall, Steve Law and Fran Juckes making 8mm films which accompanied live performances. Under this makeup, the group released their first three records: Monarchy, Mayhem and Fishpaste, Sink Sank Sunk, and Hot Air.

The band contributed to the 1988 compilation album Take Five in aid of the charity Shelter

Shelter (charity)

Shelter is a registered charity in England and Scotland that campaigns to end homelessness and bad housing. It gives advice, information and advocacy to people in need, and tackles the root causes of bad housing by lobbying government and local authorities for new laws and policies to improve the...

.

In 1991, Jackdaw released Hanging In the Balance, expanding their lineup to include Tris King (formerly of Bogshed

Bogshed

Bogshed were an independent band formed in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, England in 1984, originally as The Amazing Roy North Penis Band.-History:...

 and later of A Witness

A Witness

A Witness were an alternative rock band formed in 1982 in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, by Rick Aitken , Vince Hunt and a drum machine, in 1986 replaced by Alan Brown...

), Andy Guthrie, Alan McCulloch (aka "Wak"), Andy Grimmer, Wilf Plum (Dog Faced Hermans

Dog Faced Hermans

The Dog Faced Hermans were a four-piece band whose style could be described as anarcho-punk incorporating folk and noise influences as well as unorthodox instrumentation.-History:...

) and Charley 'H' Bembridge (The Selecter).

Jackdaw had two John Peel

John Peel

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...

 sessions on 19 May 1987 and 4 October 1987. Jackdaw stopped touring around 1991 or 1992. In 2005, Fuck America was released on a compilation CD Commercially Unfriendly: The Best Of British Underground on Gott Discs. In 2007 Tim Ellis and Adam Sindall started working together and Jackdaw was re-hatched with Fergus Durrant joining them soon after. With all new films and songs, Jackdaw has a new EP available from Hybrid Cuts. Gone are the 8mm films replaced by lap tops and video projectors. Jackdaw are currently getting air play on BBC Radio 6 in Stuart Maconie

Stuart Maconie

Stuart Maconie is an English radio DJ and television presenter, writer, journalist, and critic working in the field of of pop music and popular culture. He is currently a presenter on BBC 6 Music, where he hosts an afternoon show five times a week , alongside Mark Radcliffe, called the Radcliffe...

's Freak Zone and Don Letts

Don Letts

Don Letts is a British film director and musician. He is credited as the man who through his DJing at clubs like The Roxy brought together punk and reggae music.-Biography:...

' show.

Jackdaw went live again in March 2010. Flatpack film festival. 'The opening event that sees scratchy jazz-punks Jackdaw With Crowbar play'. (Iain Aitch The Guardian 20/03/10)

Musical style

The band's musical style was described by musician and writer John Robb as a combination of "spiky and dark guitar-driven blues and guitar-punk disco-filth". Discussing debut EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 Monarchy, Mayhem, and Fishpaste, writer John Corbett described the music: "a song sung through a bull horn ("Crow"), an accordion reggae-dub ("Fourth World"), a two-step featuring slide guitar reminiscent of Zoot Horn Rollo in Captain Beefheart's Magic Band ("The Night Albania Fell on Alabama")." In Corbett's view, "the brief appearance of Jackdaw's records exemplifies the local-mode commodity at both its most appealing and its most politically volatile".

Discography

Year	Title	Label	Catalog	Format
1987	Monarchy Mayhem and Fishpaste	Ron Johnson Records Ron Johnson Records Ron Johnson Records was an UK independent record label based in Long Eaton operating between 1983 and 1988. The label contributed five tracks to the NME's C86 compilation. Run by Dave Parsons, the label released records by artists such as Big Flame, The Shrubs, A Witness, The Great Leap Forward,...	ZRON24	12-inch single
	Sink Sank Sunk	Ron Johnson Records	ZRON31	12-inch single
1988	Hot Air	Ron Johnson Records	ZRON33	LP LP album The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
1989	First After Epiphany	Ron Johnson Records	ZRON36	LP
1991	Hanging in the Balance	HAX Turino	HAX04	LP
2010	EP200	Hybrid Cuts	069CDEP200	CD EP Extended play An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...