Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick at Tyneside Irish Centre

As I headed towards this gig on Saturday evening, it struck me that the last time I saw this pairing on stage must have been in 1969 or 1970 on a glorious day at an open air folk gathering in Hexham, Northumberland. Since then I have seen Swarb on a couple of occasions with Fairport Convention and Carthy on numerous occasions, solo, with daughter Eliza and with the Imagined Village.

They each have long and illustrious careers behind them and were quite correctly introduced to the small stage as legends.

They are both 73 years of age now and were happy to remain seated during their performance. Of course Swarbrick's health problems have been well documented in the past. He underwent a double lung transplant some years ago and most famously in 1999, the Daily Telegraph published an obituary after he was admitted to hospital with a chest infection. His playing has not diminished one bit and on the evidence of Saturday night, nor has his sense of humour. He is a very funny guy.

I also discovered that Martin Carthy can do a fair impression of Prince Charles.

Regarding the music, I did not take notes of the songs they played but among them were 'The Royal Oak', the darkly humorous 'My Son John' and a personal favourite, 'John Barleycorn'. Of course being just up the road from the Newcastle suburb that gives the song it's name, they had to play 'Byker Hill'.

There may have been the odd stumble over words or a couple of fluffed guitar phrases but the wonder is that these guys can remember all this stuff. Yet one must remember that they are truly steeped in the 'folk tradition' and have been playing this music for close to 60 years. Swarbricks explanations of some of the complex time signatures were informative and very, very funny.

They deservedly got a rousing ovation and I left feeling honoured to have been in the presence of two genuine legends.