Spiv

All Music Guide:

Since 1997, the rock songwriter and performer Chris Barber has used the combination pseudonym and band name Spiv. He claims he came upon the word on a random trip through the dictionary, a time-honored way of naming a combo. One motivation to establish another name might have been to avoid confusion with the older British trombonist, bandleader, and all-around man about jazz of the same name. While a jam session between the two of them might have its moments, the younger Barber is no swinger and rock music in general has come a long way from the rudimentary skiffle sound that is an important part of the background of the older man. "Brit-pop voodoo" is Barber's own choice of label for his projects. This sounds logical for someone who was raised in Salt Lake City, with a mother who actually took banjo lessons from Jerry Garcia.

Barber began playing professionally in punk rock bands when the scene for that style in Utah began to threaten the Mormons. The Mormons threatened right back, and Barber fled to the more sympathetic environment of Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. Here, too, there was a thriving local rock scene and from 1990 through 1993 groups with Barber opened shows for bands such as Nirvana. Riddlehouse was his group prior to establishing Spiv. Rhubarb Dreams, the second release by the former band, actually featured quite a name guest star in drummer Ginger Baker, whose son Kofi Baker was also a Riddlehouse member and Evergreen student. The Olympia-based Pop Sweatshiop label signed Spiv in 1999, no doubt aware that the band's name is an obscure word meaning a method of getting by without working; a popular concept, especially in college towns. Brother Jeremy Barber plays bass as well as electric violin in the group. With several lineup changes, Spiv had released four discs by 2003. Barber side projects during the period include the Church of Rock 'n' Roll, again with Kofi Baker, and a 2001 Pop Sweatshop effort with the German band J.B.O.

Wikipedia:

In the United Kingdom, a spiv is a particular type of petty criminal, who deals in stolen or black market goods of questionable authenticity, especially a slickly-dressed man offering goods at bargain prices. The goods are generally not what they seem or have been obtained illegally.

The term spiv was particularly used during the Second World War and in the post-war rationing period for black-market dealers.

Origins

According to Eric Partridge the word was originally racecourse slang, but had become widely accepted by 1950. It appeared in a paperback crime novel in 1934.

The origin of the word is obscure.

The Oxford English Dictionary notes that "Spiv" was the nick-name of Henry 'Spiv' Bagster, a London small-time crook in the 1900s who was frequently arrested for illegal street trading and confidence tricks, and that national newspapers reported his court appearances in 1903-06.

Immediately after the Second World War, the comedian Arthur English had a successful career appearing as a spiv with a pencil moustache, wide-brimmed hat, light-coloured suit and a bright patterned tie, and this set the popular image.

In Swedish, the word "spjuver" means a "mischievous young man", which could point to a Nordic origin.

Spiv cycle films

A series of British crime films produced about 1945 to 1950, during the time that rationing was still in effect, dealt with the black market and related underworld, and have been termed spiv movies or the spiv cycle by critics. Examples are Brighton Rock and Night and the City in which the spiv is a main character. Other crime films which have been quoted as part of the spiv cycle – though not always featuring a spiv character just criminal dealings – are They Made Me a Fugitive, It Always Rains on Sunday, Odd Man Out, No Way Back, The Third Man and Waterloo Road.

Other depictions of the spiv in popular media

The image of the spiv was used for the character Flash Harry in the film The Belles of St Trinian's and subsequent St Trinian's films, and the character Private Joe Walker in the TV series Dad's Army. The character Swinburne (played by Bruce Forsyth) in the film Bedknobs and Broomsticks (set in Second World War London) has a similar appearance, and offers to sell from a selection of watches which are pinned inside his coat. Another example of a spiv in children's fiction is Johnny Sharp in the 1948 novel The Otterbury Incident by Cecil Day-Lewis.

In Agatha Christie's play, The Mousetrap, the mysterious character of Mr. Paravicini is referred to as a spiv. He arrives unexpectedly at Monkswell Manor, a guesthouse that is the setting for the play, with only one small suitcase. It may be inferred that he has some kind of stolen goods in the case.

In The Kinks' rock opera Preservation: Acts 1 & 2 Ray Davies states that his character "Flash", at that point leader of the Government, had started out as a "Second Hand Car Spiv" in the song "Scum of the Earth".

The Discworld's Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler is a fantasy spiv, as is the character of Mundungus Fletcher in the Harry Potter series.citation needed

English singer-songwriter Joe Jackson based elements of his early public persona around that of the spiv, and labeled his own music as "spiv rock". His use of spiv imagery is particularly evident on the cover of his second album, I'm the Man.

According to Peter Wollen, "The crucial difference between the spiv - a flashy black-marketeer - and the classic gangster was the degree of sympathy the spiv attracted among audiences weary of wartime and post-war shortages: black-marketeers may have been outside the law, but they performed an obvious public service."

SPIV is a banking acronym for Special Purpose Investment Vehicle.