A
History of Adge Cutler & The Wurzels
Part 2: Adge Cutler & The Wurzels (1966-1974)
work
in progress!
1966
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
armed with demo tapes and an idea about creating a West Country
band to compete with the weird psychedelic bands of the time. At
the meeting, the idea of Adge Cutler & The Wurzels was conceived
with John Miles as manager; John would remain the band's manger
until the late 1980s. Originally the band was to be called The Mangoldwurzels
- but it was felt that The Wurzels had a more commercial feel to
it.
Joining
Adge
in that first line-up were his
good friend, banjo and guitar player Reg
Quantrill,
and Bristolian pub landlord and accordion
player Reg Chant.
Adge also poached an impressive rhythm section from Acker
Bilk's Paramount Jazz Band - well-respected
upright acoustic bass player John
Macey and tuba player Brian
Walker. In July 1966, Adge Cutler & The Wurzels was
unleashed upon an unsuspecting world!
As
a result of the meeting - and calling in a lot of favours - John
managed to negotiate a recording contract with EMI. With this came
the EMI producer
Bob Barratt
and sound engineer Geoff Emerick. After
a few months of gigging across the county, the Royal Oak pub in
Nailsea was commandeered and the band's debut album was recorded.
Bob Barratt's evocative sleeve notes from the back of the album
recounts the event:
And
2nd November, 1966, was a night of entertainment to remember in
Nailsea. For a studio recording you can reckon on allowing thirty
minutes or more until the audience warms up and you begin to feel
atmosphere. For a Somerset pub recording it took thirty seconds.
The audience were a cross-section of cider-quaffing Wurzel-lovers
from every corner of Somerset; from Westonzoyland to Monkton Combe.
Nailsea's oldest inhabitant, wearing a top-hat for such a special
occasion, was flanked by long-haired youths and mini-skirted girls.
At
first the broadcasting men and journalists from rival stations and
newspapers eyed each other somewhat coldly: the locals wondered
if they should be on their Sunday-best behaviour with 'them thar
record men from Lunnon in town'. By nine o'clock the journalists
and television-men were clinking glasses like old friends as the
TV cameras whirred; by 9:30 the locals were proving that not all
the best voices are t'other side of the new Severn Bridge. At ten
o'clock we sent out for fresh supplies of cider and beer and the
landlord's wife was dancing a Highland fling with Adge; the cameramen
complained that the room was too smokey for photographs - then lit
up fresh cigarettes. At 10:30 the Wurzels did a third encore of
"Drink Up Thy Zider" and the Nailsea Mixed Voice Choir
raised the rafters on the chorus.
 It
makes you want to have been there - or if you were there, it makes
you wish you hadn't drunk so much cider that you can't remember
the night! Such
media coverage is always useful for an emerging band, and so it
proved. Off the back of the recording, the BBC gave Adge his first
taste of national fame with an appearance on the The Frost Report
- David Frost's "a live satirical show mixing monologues, sketches
and music" - later that month.
A
few weeks later (December 1966?), the
double A-sided single Drink
Up Thy Zider backed with Twice Daily
was released as the band's debut single. The BBC promptly banned
it - considering the lyrical content of Twice Daily (a
shotgun wedding) as being unsuitable for their listening public.
Shows how public opinion has changed over the years!
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1967
 Adge's
pioneering debut single was a massive success locally - topping
the local Bristol single charts. It sold over 100,000 copies and
reached the national singles charts - arriving at #45 on 4th
February 1967, and disappearing the week after. This
was one of the first times that a local release had "broken
out" and hit the national singles charts.
On
the back of that chart success, EMI quickly released the four-track
Scrumpy
& Western EP (February 1967) containing two
more songs from the Royal Oak session. This
release was issued hurriedly to satisfy demand for more material
following the success of Drink Up Thy Cider. It was the
only EP issued by Adge Cutler & The Wurzels - and the one that
gave its name to the Scrumpy & Western genre of music.
 The
Scrumpy & Western EP was a stop-gap allowing EMI to
complete the release of the band's debut album Adge
Cutler & The Wurzels which was released the
following month (March 1967). It is interesting to note that all
twelve tracks on the album were Adge Cutler compositions - an impressive
showcase of the man's songwriting prowess.
This
release gave Adge more chart success as the album hit the official
UK Albums Charts at #38 on 11th March
1967. This is as good as it got though with the album dropping
to #40 the following week before leaving the charts for good the
week after. But for your debut album, two weeks in the national
album charts is something to be proud of (and sadly something Adge
would not better).
 Coinciding
with the album, EMI released the band's second single The
Champion Dung Spreader
on 10th March 1967. Champion Dung Spreader was Adge's
answer to Lonnie Donegan's 1960 UK hit My Old Man's A Dustman
- but sadly the general public were more interested in rubbish than
muck spreading, and the single failed to chart.
The
band were quickly embraced across the country with appearances on
top national TV shows including the prime-time chat shows hosted
by former Radio Caroline/BBC 1 DJ Simon Dee. The band went from
strength to strength, and although subsequent albums and singles
may have failed to repeat the chart success of Drink Up Thy
Zider, Adge Cutler & The Wurzels were now a national touring
band playing - and selling-out - top cabaret and music venues across
the country.
But
along with success came the first casualty of success - Brian
Walker quit the band and took his Wurzelphone back into the
Bristol jazz scene from whence he came. Adge decided not to replace
him, and it was John Macey's bass playing which held the band together
through the touring and the recording of the band's follow-up album.
 Adge
Cutler & The Wurzels' second album Adge
Cutler's Family Album was, like the first, recorded
in front of a live audience in the upstairs room of the Royal Oak
pub in Nailsea in North Somerset. I have no definitive date for
the recording, nor for the release; but the band line-up of Cutler-Quantrill-Chant-Macey
is useful in dating the personnel changes that took place after
it's recording.
The
majority of the album comes from the pen of Adge Cutler - six songs
including some of his best loved songs - The Shepton Mallet
Matador, Easton-In-Gordano and The Somerset Space
Race. However Adge offered the other band members a chance
to bring their own songs to the table. As a result we get Drunk
Again by John Macey and Reg Quantrill, John's own song Sniff
Up Thy Snuff - as well as two parody/adaptations The Wild
West Show and Freak-Out In Somerset by producer Bob
Barrett, Sweet Violets - an music halll classic redone
in the Wurzels style; and the brilliant Sheriff of Midsomer
Norton by the mysterious Dwaine Detroit (a pseudonym if you've
ever heard one!). We have no record as to when this album was released
- and how the releases of the two single in July and October (and
the band personnel changes) fitted around it. The album failed to
chart, but remains a popular release with fans.
 There
were several more line-up changes in 1967 - and we have very few
dates for these comings and goings; suffice to say they all took
place after the recording of Family Album (although not
neccessarily after its release). First was the arrival of Henry
Davies who was drafted into the band as tuba player to fill
the gap left by Brian. This
brought the band back up to a five-piece - but only a few months
later John Macey left the band, Henry added
'bass player' to his job description, and Adge Cutler & The
Wurzels are back as a four-piece.
 The
summer of 1967 saw the release of the band's third single I
Wish I Was Back On The Farm (7th July 1967). This
song was originally sung by George Formby in his 1940 film Spare
A Copper, and although it was not included on the Family
Album it could well have been recorded at the same session;
certainly the the b-side Easton-In-Gordano was. If it was
recorded after the Family Album sessions, heaven only knows
who plays on the track!
Reg
Chant also left The Wurzels in 1967 (date unknown) after the
recording of Family Album. Rumour has it that old Reg was
very fond of his cider (indeed, anyone's cider!) and appears to
have become rather a liability to the band. According to Tommy Banner
when interviewed
in 2007 for BBC Radio Somerset, "Former manager John Miles
said Tommy joined the band after it was decided they needed a professional
accordian player after their first one did not want to go on stage
until the cider was delivered."
In
the late-summer of 1967, Henry Davies was asked to join the
latest pop sensation The New Vaudeville Band whose
debut single Winchester Cathedral had topped the charts
in USA. With a chance for fame and fortune - and perhaps hoping
for more of a musical challenge than The Wurzels offered - Henry
accepted the offer, but not before suggesting to Adge that he appoint
his friend Melt
Kingston as his replacement. Melt arrived in Bristol
and had one day to learn to how to play the band's repertoire -
and the upright bass; his memories
of that time are rather hazy!
 Amidst
- or perhaps after - all these changes, Adge Cutler & The Wurzels's
fourth single All
Over Mendip was released. The single was released
on 6th October 1967; and contained two new songs: another classic
Adge Cutler song All Over Mendip backed by My Threshing
Machine; an old folk song adapted again by the mysterious Dwaine
Detroit. We
have no records as to when these two news songs were recorded -
and, of course, who was in the band at the time. Neither appear
on Family Album; but it is anyone's guess as to whether
they were recorded at the same time, or later that year. To further
cloud the issue, when All Over Mendip was finally released
on album (on the 1969 Carry On Cutler!), the copyright
on that track's recording is 1967 although it is obvously a different
version to the single; so two different versions, both recorded
in 1967!
 The
year ended with the arrival of Tommy
Banner (accordion, organ and piano) to replace the departed
Reg Chant. Tommy arrived from Scotland on 5th November 1967; but
I have it on good authority that Reg had left the band earlier than
this, and that for a few months, Adge Cutler & The Wurzels'
temporary accordion player was none other than Pete Shutler of Dorset
Scrumpy & Western band The
Yetties. Subject to confirmation, of course, this might be just
a rural myth!
According
to the notes in the Wurzels Songbook, Tommy claims that
'The Wurzels could not get a good accordionist in England so they
went to Scotland and got a bad one!' He originally took a three
months booking with Adge Cutler & The Wurzels prior to beginning
a contract for a round-the-world trip playing in another band; and
he has been in the West Country ever since. Tommy arrived in Somerset
expecting to join a "trendy pop group", and was surprised
to find he was renamed "Jock McSpreader" by his
fellow band members and expected to wear old second hand clothes
on stage while singing songs about such arcane subjects (to him,
anyhow) as dung spreading, pigs, scrumpy, tractors and the Pill
ferry. The culture shock and problems he experienced in having to
get used to scrumpy instead of Scotch, not to mention the language
difficulties, are documented in Tommy's autobiographical song Haggis
Farewell on the Give Me England? album.
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1968
Although
he loved working with Adge, and got on well with his band-mates,
Melt Kingston's time with the band was limited to less than a year.
Down in London, things hadn't worked out for Henry Davies
and in March/April 1968, Melt and Henry did a job-swap; Henry returned
to The Wurzels, while Melt caught the train back to London to take
over tuba duties with the New Vaudeville Band.
Don't
Tell I, Tell 'Ee single released (April)
Up
The Clump single
released (August)
Ferry
To Glastonbury single released (September)
 Adge
Cutler & The Wurzels' third album Cutler
Of The West album released
with the Cutler, Quantrill, Banner, Davis line-up.
Henry
Davis is also the album's musical arranger and arranger.
Cutler Of The West was, like its predecessors, recorded
in front of a live audience. By this time, their huge local popularity
required more space than the Royal Oak pub in Nailsea could provide,
and the lucky venue selected for this historic occasion was the
Webbington Country Club, Loxton in 'Zummerzet'.
This
album is currently the only one of Adge's albums to have been re-issued
on CD.
As
usual, the album included some of Adge's humour and banter between
songs, to give listeners to the album the impression of being there
at a live show. The album features more compositions by other writers
but nonetheless includes some of Adge's classics, notably Thee's
Got'n Where Thee Cassn't Back'n, Hassn't? and Adge's Rock 'n'
Roll number Up The Clump. The
addition of Tommy and Henry to the band's line-up added a new dimension
to the band's sound. This is especially seen on In The Haymaking
Time where we have Tommy on accordion and some nice tinkley
piano (which I suspect was added in the studio later!), while Henry's
upright bass is bowed for the sad finale. A
Pub With No Beer sees Tommy on piano and Henry on violin; as
there is no obvious guitar or banjo on this track, so maybe Reg
was covering on bass (or outside watering the wurzel plant!).
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1969
 In
January, Henry Davies leaves The Wurzels again, this time for good
(although he does reman a good friend of Adge and the band). He
is replaced
by another Londoner Tony
'Gaffer' Baylis (bass & sousaphone).
Carry
On Cutler! album released with the Cutler, Quantrill, Banner,
Bayliss line-up. Henry Davis continues in the role as album's musical
arranger and arranger.
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1970
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1971
Poor,
Poor Farmer single released (May)
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1972
Little
Darlin' single released (May)
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1973
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1974
Reg
Quantrill leaves The Wurzels. He is replaced by Pete
Budd (guitar and banjo) on a "temporary basis".
Adge
Cutler's career was sadly cut short by his untimely death on Sunday
5th May 1974. Returning home from a successful week long residency
at the Crystal Rooms in Hereford, Adge crashed and overturned his
MGB sports car at Newbridge roundabout near Chepstow. He had been
complaining about a cold during the week, and had decided to drive
home to catch up on lost sleep. According to Pete Budd's interview
in the Wurzels World book, Pete was originally enlisted to chauffeur
Adge from Hereford and collect him the following day to take him
to a meeting with the John Miles to talk over a television series
and the fifth album. Plans were changed, and Adge drove himself
on that fatal journey. Adge Cutler is buried in Christchurch in
Nailsea.
Drink
Up Thy Zider single re-released (June)
Little
Darlin' single re-released (July)
The
Very Best Of Adge Cutler compilation album released.
Don't
Tell I, Tell 'Ee compilation album released.
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