He recorded with Pere Ubu, Viv Stanshall, Jack the Lad, Gerry Rafferty, Maddy Prior and others. In 1980 he released his only single, "Jogging Along with My Reindeer". Two more albums with Sue Harris appeared in 1981, but the constant touring, as a duo and as part of other groups, was putting a strain on the marriage. They had four sons together, but parted in the mid eighties. In 1988 he and Sue published "Opus Pocus", a collection of many of their own compositions from the previous 20 years, and a selection of some of the (then) more obscure traditional English tunes which had influenced them. In 1979 Kirkpatrick had appeared in the National Theatre Company's stage show "Lark Rise to Candleford" together with Carthy and trumpeter Howard Evans. Prior to this the use of brass instruments in English folk music was a rare event, but all three had found it thrilling and a couple of years later formed Brass Monkey with Martin Brinsford from the Old Swan Band. The group is an occasional gathering rather than a fixed company. Roy Bailey, like Leon Rosselson has frequently recorded songs of social commentary, frequently on an anti-war theme. John has made several records with Roy Bailey, as well as in a group called Band of Hope. He recorded with Frankie Armstrong in 1996 and 1997. They share a love of early English ballads. In 1997 John decided to front his own "rock-folk" band, and put together a line-up consisting of Graeme Taylor (guitar, electric guitar, banjo, mandolin – ex Gryphon, The Albion Band and Home Service), Mike Gregory (drums, percussion – ex Albion Band, Home Service), Dave Berry (electric bass, double bass, tuba) and Paul Burgess (fiddle, recorders – from the Old Swan Band). They made two albums: a live album "Force of Habit" containing many of John's arrangements of Morris tunes, plus other material from his back catalogue, plus a studio album "Welcome To Hell" featuring new material. Since 1993 John has recorded seven solo albums. He often unearths obscure English tunes and songs from folk ceremonies. Recently he has started to explore Balkan and Hungarian dance tunes. He has produced one of the only teaching videos for English (D/G) melodeon, also on DVD. A further teaching resource is his 2003 book of traditional tunes, "English Choice," and two accompanying CDs. He has recently started to perform with accordion wizard Chris Parkinson as the Sultans of Squeeze, and the pair have released one album.