Beyond The ox

SWEGAS were a British 'progressive' brass-rock band that existed between 1969 and 1971. They played all the major venues in the UK and made several tours of Italy and Germany where they were extremely popular. The name of the band is derived from an Anglo Saxon word for music. Swegas began life as a rehearsal band in 1969. They were put together by Brian (Joe) Spibey and Nick Ronai who had been members of the Fulson Stilwell Band before joining the soul band, Cat Road Show. The original Swegas band consisted of Joe Spibey (trumpet), Nick Ronai (trombone), Alan Smith (Tenor Sax), Jonny Toogood (guitar) plus a few pick up players. Mid 1969 they advertised for an Organist and Bass Guitarist and Keith Strachan and Roy Truman applied and got the gig.

In 1897, Rimsky-Korsakov composed the rough draft for a piano trio in C minor. He polished the middle movements to performance level, but it was left to the composer’s son-in-law, Maximilian Steinberg, to reconstruct its outer movements some 30 years after the composer’s death. While Rimsky disparaged the work in his autobiography, its wistful lyricism and operatic scope hold your attention beyond the sometimes stilted interplay between instruments. The Bekova Sisters turn in idiomatic, sensitively dovetailed work, although violinist Elvira’s oily vibrato seems excessively sweet in soft, sustained passages.