AN English folk legend who inspired Bob Dylan and Paul Simon will perform at a 100-year-old church on St George's Day.

Martin Carthy will play live alongside longtime musical partner Dave Swarbrick, formerly of Fairport Convention, at St George's Church, in Pinner View, North Harrow, on Saturday, April 23.

They will be joined by Chris Parkinson, co-founder of folk group The House Band.

The parish is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its building and will be selling tickets to members of the public who want to see the performance.

Mr Carthy and Mr Swarbrick have been performing alongside each other for decades and are held up as icons of English traditional music.

Mr Carthy said: “I am looking forward to it as I haven't been to Harrow for years. I used to play at the folk club when it was near Harrow and Wealdstone Station but it's certainly been 20 or 30 years now.

“I'll be singing the repertoire that's in my mind at the time. Traditional stuff mostly.”

The pair come from a musical tradition in which no one person owns a song but the music is rewritten again and again over hundreds of years by a series of different performers, each changing something or adding their own style.

Mr Carthy said he made little money out of his music, being payed no royalties having not authored any of his songs.

Instead he keeps himself going by continuing to play gigs across the country and says he performs all the time.

He said: “Folk is written by a whole committee of people over hundreds of years. Each person who gets a hold of it makes it theirs.

“They might change it a bit, change the tune or change whole sections of it. It belongs to you. It's part of your heritage whether you know it or not.

“There's still lots of people playing it, there's a whole folk scene of people singing traditional music.”

Reverend Stephen Keeble, vicar at St George's, said the church was a “bastion of English cultural tradition”.

He said: “We are delighted as part of the 100th anniversary of the church building celebrations to be able to welcome such giants of traditional English music.

“We are also very pleased to be able to invite the local community to what proves to be a hugely enjoyable event.”

The concert starts at 8pm and tickets are £15, available from Meg Pointer by calling 0208 863 8937 or emailing megpointer@supanet.com.