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A
History of Adge Cutler & The Wurzels
Part 1: A Tale of Adge Cutler (1966-1974)
work
in progress!
The
story of The Wurzels must start with Adge Cutler; as the band was
created purely as a backing band to support Adge and his songs.
Alan John Cutler was born in Portishead, North Somerset in 1930;
one of three sons of Jack and Dorothy Cutler. Nicknamed 'Adge' by
his friends, from his initials A.J., he was brought up and schooled
in the nearby town of Nailsea, where a plague stands in Grove Park
Sports Centre in his honour. It was at the Village Institute in
Nailsea that Adge made his first even public performance, at the
age of seven - singing There'll Always Be A Nailsea. It
is evident that even then that the lure of Scrumpy & Western
music - a strong feeling of local pride tied with a wicked sense
of humour - was already making itself known in the young Adge Cutler.
Adge
left school at 14 and had a succession of job including market gardener,
working in his father's coach hire business, working in a Coates
Somerset Cider Factory in Nailsea, and working on building a power
station in North Wales. During this time Adge was already writing
and performing music. He dates 1958 as the year he wrote Drink
Up Thy Cider, and played his first paid gig at The Cavern Club
in Liverpool; well before The Beatles had played there!
In
1960 he took a job as road manager for famous Somerset clarinet
player Acker Bilk
- a job which involved him driving Acker to and from concerts. It
was during this time that he wrote many of his songs, singing them
to entertain Acker - and keep him awake on those long drives across
the country. During this time, he had met - and presumably got on
well with - John Miles whose company,
The John Miles Organisation, was a well-known and respected
booking agency based in Whiteladies Road in Clifton, Bristol with
some 350 pop bands on their books.
After
leaving Acker's employ, Adge spent a year in Spain working as an
agent looking for property - but in the summer of 1966 he arrived
back in Britain penniless. In June 1966, with little more than a
fiver in his pocket and a collection of self-penned songs, Adge
Cutler 'broke into' John Miles' office. From here on the story -
and Adge and John's fortunes - would change quite dramatically.
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