I
Remember Adge
This
is a brand new page, which I hope will be filling up with your anecdotes,
memories, reviews and comments about meeting, seeing or hearing
Adge Cutler. Please send
me your Adge Cutler stories!
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I
saw Adge when I was 10 at Sandy Bay Holiday Camp in Dorset. I also
used to get fishing tackle at Pete Budd's shop in Keynsham High
Street...
Stephen
(via Facebook)
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I
knew Adge and his wife. I used to have the Severn Salmon pub in
Severn Beach and he played there for me one evening in the early
70's. Adge said it was one of his best gigs and the only time he
did an encore. He brought the house down, the dance floor was full
and so were the grounds of the pub. It was tragic when he died not
long after. I have several of his records that he signed for me
after the gig.
Leslie (via Facebook)
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I
am now a Bristol City season ticket holder of long standing. However,
in 1967, I was an eleven year old schoolboy and the second City
match I ever saw was the FA Cup 4th Round tie against Southampton
at Ashton Gate. The date was Saturday 18th February. The crowd was
38,017 and Bristol City won 1–0 (Johnny Quigley passed to
Terry Bush, who scored at the old open end – where the Atyeo
Stand now resides). Equally memorable and important, was the fact
that Adge Cutler & The Wurzels played on the pitch at half-time.
John Yeo, Bowlish, Somerset
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Adge
Cutler was apart of my childhood. I have aways had Adge Cutler's
music around me and now it is played by my 10-year-old daughter.
I am now taking her to see The Wurzels when they are in our town.
Memories fade as we get older but the name Jacko has never
faded and I still get called it on and off!
I
can remember the London-to-Brighton Vintage Car Run - all of us
in the old coach. It was a good day out. Looking through my LPs
with Adge on the front cover nudges the memories and my daughter
playing her CDs just shows that it doesn't matter how daft an idea,
some times it last.
Jackie
Murdoch
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Melt
Kingston Joins The Wurzels
I
spoke to former Wurzel Melt Kingston, and he recounted
two tales about his arrival in Bristol to join the band.
Melt
Kingston was invited to join Adge Cutler & The Wurzels in the
later summer of 1967, when his friend and fellow tuba player Henry
Davis left to join the New Vaudeville Band. Melt described arriving
at Bristol Temple Meads station from London to be met by Adge, who
drove him to his house in Nailsea. Previously Melt had been part
of the London jazz scene and was a tuba player of some renown in
those circles. The string bass though, an instrument he would be
asked to play with the band, was not something he had tried before
although he admitted to "knowing the fundamentals".
So
he and Adge settled down in Adge's lounge armed with Henry's spare
string bass and liberally refreshed by glasses of cider from the
barrel of scrumpy in Adge's parlour. Sadly Melt's memories become
rather hazy from then on, but he reckons he learnt two songs before
the cider took over. Time
wasn't on their side either because that evening Adge had to go
to the press launch of an advertising campaign for Mr Brain's Faggots
for which Adge had written the song Faggots Is The Stuff.
Melt went along with him to be introduced to the press - and presumably
the rest of the band. More drink was consumed and the next day Melt
woke up with a terrible hangover and vague memories of two Wurzels
songs. Thus armed he made his debut with the band that evening!
He
has another tale about Adge taking him down to Dunne's Menswear
in Bristol to get kitted out in his Wurzels gear. In those days
there was no such thing a charity shops, so it was to the high street
that they went for checked shirts, neckerchiefs and a suitable hat.
Melt was paraded in front of Adge in his new gear. Adge looked quizzical,
took the nice new hat from Melt's head, threw it on the floor, jumped
on it a couple of times and replaced it on Melt's head. 'That's
better!', he announced.
Frank
Blades in conversation with Melt Kingston (1 Dec
2007)
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 I
Remember Adge's Van
Pictured
is a 1937 Bedford WTB with 25 seat coachwork by Duple; reg JT 8077.
JT was new to South Dorset Coaches at Corfe Castle in Dorset, and
stayed with the company for thirty years before passing to Adge
Cutler of The Wurzels fame. Adge used her for band transport,
but he was also interested in vintage vehicles, and took her to
a number of rallies, including the London to Brighton Historic Commercial
vehicle Run.
Following
Adge's untimely death in a road accident, she passed to new owners
in Gloucestershire in the mid 1970s. She became semi derelict before
passing to Pearce, Darch & Willcox, at Cattistock, in Dorset
who restored her, and recertified her as a PSV in 1987. After two
or three years the company and its modern coaches sold out to Southern
National, but JT 8077 remained in the old garage until 1992 when
acquired by John Woodhams Vintage Tours in Ryde, Isle of Wight where
she was added to their fleet.
Very
few WTBs survive today, an JT 8077 has been carefully restored and
maintained to present day standards, and is the only example in
passenger service. Looking at the website, JT 8077 is available
for hire for weddings or other special occasions - seems more tasteful
than a stretched limo!
Taken
from John Woodhams
Vintage Tours website (Oct 2007)
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Adge
And The Shepton Cows
A
couple of years ago I was chatting to Pete Budd after a Taunton
gig (when most people had retired home!) about a clip of a promotional
video of 'The Shepton Mallet Matador' which had been shown in the
recent InsideOut West documentary on The Wurzels.
Pete told me about about the filming of the 'pop video'. Apparently
they started filming very early in the morning, and everyone was
there except Adge. A search party was set up and he was eventually
found on the outskirts of the town leaning on a five bar gate chatting
away to a couple of inquisitive cows! Apparently quite typical of
him!
Jonathan
Conibere (Oct 2007)
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Adge
At The Gaumont
I
went to a live show by Adge Cutler and The Wurzels sometime in the
1960s, probably '65 or '66. It was at the Gaumont Theatre in Taunton.
I would have been 17 or 18 at the time. I remember enjoying the
show, but not much more. I have performed a few of the songs myself
over the years and still think they are fun, although I am not so
keen on the ones that came out after Adge's untimely death.
Rob
Williams, ex-pat West Countryman; now in Illinois, USA (2007).
[Ed
note: The Gaumont Palace Theatre in Taunton was opened on 1932,
and was re-named the Gaumont Theatre in 1937. In 1969 is became
the Odeon until closing on 5th September 1981. I has since been
converted into a Top Rank Bingo Club and opened in November 1981.
It is a Listed Grade II building. As well as The Wurzels, it hosted
the likes of The Beatles (1963) and The Rolling Stones (1964).]
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Last
Orders For George The Cider Drinker
One
should never believe tales told by 'a man in the pub', but this
one is too good to be ignored...
Thursday
9th August 2007 saw the funeral of George Lefevre of Shirehampton.
George was the winner of the South West Cider Drinking Competition
where he consumed a massive seventeen and a half pints of scrump
on the one hour allotted.
In
the audience was one Alan John Cutler, who was so impressed with
this feat that he went home and wrote a little ditty about it. A
little ditty which he sang as he drove his employer, Mister Bernard
Stanley Bilk back from a concert. A little ditty so catchy that
it was the first single by Adge Cutler and The Wurzels reaching
the UK national Top 40. A little ditty that has become an anthem
for the West Country and for cider drinkers across the world. "Drink
up thy cider George...".
This
is what Alan Bennet, the man in the Parish Pump pub in Worle, told
me at the weekend - and it is a great story that I hope it is true.
Oh, and Alan informed me that after winning the competition, George
celebrated by carrying on drinking into the night with his mates.
Proper stuff!
Alan
Bennet of Shirehampton; now living in Weston-Super-Mare. (August
2007)
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A
Gig In The Rain
An Adge Cutler fan recounted a tale
of a gig Adge Cutler And The Wurzels did on a farm in the Coleford
area in the late 1960s. The stage was set up in the yard between
the barn and in front of the slurry pit. A cider bar was set up
and the crowds were soon in the spirit of the performance. As Adge
and the band took the stage, it started to rain.
Never
to be concerned about a bit of rain. Adge and the band played on,
and the crowd stayed to watch. As the performance gathered pace,
so did the rain; but fuelled by plenty of scrump the audience stomped
along with the music. And as the crowd filled up with cider, so
the slurry pit filled up with rain - and eventually it burst it's
banks, sending a wave of noxious effluent across the yard.
My
narrator described a scene of devastation through which hundreds
of Wurzels fans stuck it out (or indeed got stuck in) as the music
played on. Those in wellies happiliy splashing along to the music,
everyone else was ankle deep in raw liquid manure - but no-one willing
to leave until the show had finished. He claimed that the clothes
he wore that night stank for years to come. One wonders if the seeds
of the Champion Dung Spreader song arrived to Adge that
night!
Blame
it on the cider!
source
unnamed; thanks to Jethro Tool of The
Mangledwurzels (2006)
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