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 Henry
Davies
(Wurzel
1967-1969)
'Actually', as Adge would say, 'I'll tell 'ee
a tale about ol' 'Enry'... West Country-born Henry Davies
(you may sometimes see his name spelt Davis) joined Adge
Cutler & The Wurzels in 1967 to fill the void left by Brian
Walker.
The butt of many a joke, Adge described him as "ten
stone of skin and cider"! He
was apparently the owner of the biggest Wurzelphone in the country,
and had a tendency to splash when he got excited. He would be introduced
to the audience as The Man with the Golden Crumpet, and
according to Adge, he was also Duke of Edinburgh award winner for
silage making, and an former member of the Bolshoi Ballet.
Henry
was a well-known and respected musician on the Bristol jazz scene
before joining Adge Cutler & The Wurzels. He was originally
drafted in as tuba player to replace , but after the departure of
John
Macey, he also took over the bass playing duties. Henry
was an accomplished musician who could play the "Wurzelphone"
as well as piano, clarinet, string bass and violin. Henry was also
a musical arranger and was responsible for the arrangements on Adge's
third album Cutler Of The West (while he was still
in the band) and the fourth Carry On Cutler!
(after he had left). He also co-wrote two songs with Adge Cutler
- Look At 'Ee, Lookin' At I, The Market Gardener
and I'm The Captain Of A Dredger. All three appeared on
the post-Adge 1975 album The Wurzels Are Scrumptious!
and may even have been Henry
putting music to lyrics Adge had written but never finalised as
songs.
Although
Henry was only briefly with Adge Cutler & The Wurzels, he is
one of the few who have joined and left the band twice. In late
summer of 1967, Henry left to join the New Vaudeville Band.
This group was the brainchild of songwriter Geoff Stephens who had
gathered together some studio musicians for the recording session
in 1966. From that session came the single Winchester Cathedral
which became an international hit. As a result Stephens formed a
touring version of the band which was managed by a young Peter Grant
(later manager of The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin!) and Henry was
asked to join the band in 1967. He suggested that a young jazz tuba
player Melt Kingston
be his replacement in The Wurzels.
However,
things didn't work out for Henry at the New Vaudeville Band, and
in March or April of 1968, Henry and Melt did a job-swap with Melt
joining the New Vaudeville Band and Henry returning to join Adge
Cutler & The Wurzels. Although he enjoyed being a Wurzel, Henry
found the music was not demanding enough, so he returned to the
jazz scene. He left the band for a second time in 1969 being replaced
by the arrival of Tony
Baylis. It is evident that the split was very much
on an amicable bases, as Henry returned to work with Adge as
musical arranger on the
1969 Carry On Cutler! album. After Adge's death, Henry
was called on to put the music to three sets of Adge's lyrics for
the 1975 The Wurzels Are Scrumptious album.
Little
is recorded about Henry after his Wurzels days. The 1976
The Pigsty
Hill Light Orchestra album of the same name has a Henry
Davies listed amongst the band members - surely this must the same
person. But like many ex-Wurzels, Henry returned to his first love
- jazz. A YouTube
video from 2007 shows the Henry Davis Hot Five Jazz
Band recorded at the Warmley Jazz Club - run by another
former Wurzel Reg Quantrill
- at The Midland Spinner in Warmley, just outside Bristol on 19th
December 2007.
Wurzel
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