Wurzelmania!

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The Lost Wurzel Songs

Zider 'Ed originally created this section to discuss two songs which were written by songwriter Ian Whitcomb for Adge Cutler & The Wurzels, but were turned down. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg, as there are several songs which might have been Adge Cutler & The Wurzels songs, but didn't happen for a variety of reasons.

If you have any details of other 'Lost' Wurzels Songs, please let us know.

Go West and In The Country were two songs sung by Pete Budd (and possibly recorded by The Wurzels) as advertisements for Ambrosia Creamed Rice ("Devon knows how they make it so creamy!"). Go West - for the 1998 advert - was a parody of the Village People (and later, the Pet Shop Boys) song of the same name; In The Country (1999) was a parody of the Village People's In The Navy. Neither were ever released - and possibly were never even recorded as full songs - but there is a underground movement amongst Wurzels fans to get them released... The best we have is both adverts - Go West and In The Country - in all their glory on YouTube. [Also see Adge Cutler & The Wurzels On The Box]

I Want to Join The Eddie Stobart Fanclub, On Yer Bike Mike and That's Good, That's Good! were three songs which were planned for the lost 1995 Wurzels, Hits, The Road album. The former song was a set of alternative lyrics to the I Want to Be An Eddie Stobart Driver tune which was recorded in the same session as the Eddie Stobart EP recording, while the latter two were brand new songs which were never (as far as we know) ever recorded by the Wurzels. All three were written by Tim Barker (who also wrote Eddie Stobart Driver lyrics). Wurzels fan Darren Scott put together a montage video of I Want to Join The Eddie Stobart Fanclub which is on YouTube.

The Great Nailsea Cider Bet - this song is known by title only. It was referred to a track on The Crofters EP 'Pill Ferry and other Folk Songs Sung by The Crofters', but did not appear on that EP. The song is supposed to have been written by Adge Cutler but we have no information as to whether it was ever recorded, and if so where or when or by whom. [see The Crofters entry on the Scrumpy & Western website]

The End Of My Old Cigar is an old music hall favourite which was part of the band's live set on BBC Radio 2 programme Folk '73 (see Adge Cutler & The Wurzels On The Box). The song was never recorded on any of the Adge Cutler's albums, although there have been suggestions that it might well have been part of the 'fifth' Adge Cutler & The Wurzels album if Adge had lived that long. WurzelWorld put together a montage video which is on YouTube.

The WCPR - this was a poem by the late Ken Rollings, Portishead poet and brother of the late George Rollings (he of George in Drink Up Thy Cider). The poem was called The WCPR, and is about the Weston-Clevedon-Portishead Railway. Roger Gordon of the Somerset Paddies remembers a little story that Adge Cutler wanted to buy the rights for the song to release on a Wurzels album, but Ken wasn't interested.

Wurzel Fudge - The Village Idiot and Wurzel Fudge In London Town are two songs by singer-songwriter Ian Whitcomb wrote and offered to Adge Cutler, who felt they were not suitable to be recorded and released as Wurzels songs (see Wurzel Fudge - The Songs That Adge Turned Down)

Worm Charming Day - In Mervyn Hancock's book Wurzels World, Pete Budd refers to this song as being one that the band wrote for Esther Rantzen's That's Life programme for the BBC (late 1970s/early 1980s?). There may have been others that the band performed That's Life but which never made it onto albums, but I have no details.

'A song about Guy Fawkes' - another song mentioned (but not titled) by Pete in the Wurzels World book. This was written for Noel Edmonds and performed live on the BBC TV programme Swap Shop. The Wurzels made two appearances on the show - 1976 and 1977 (see Adge Cutler & The Wurzels On The Box), no idea which one 'A song about Guy Fawkes' made it's debut.

In addition, a conversation with some Adge Cutler fans from Coleford attending a Mangledwurzels concert in Shepton Mallet revealed that they had 'loads of unrecorded Adge Cutler songs'. Sadly this was 'just the cider talking' and all that the guys had was copies of the 1960s vinyl albums!

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