Starting out in the sixties as a bluegrass band, the Strawberry Hill Boys,
founders Dave Cousins and Tony Hooper played first with mandolinist Arthur
Phillips and then double-bassist Talking John Berry. They played as a duo
at the first Cambridge Folk Festival in 1965. The repertoire soon shifted
to favour their own (mainly Cousins') material. Sandy Denny was asked by
Cousins to join the band and they recorded an album of classic Cousins
pop-flavoured songs, also including the first recording of Denny's
mensmeric "Who Knows Where The Time Goes". Before a label could be found, Sandy decided her future lay elsewhere, and the album All Our Own Work stayed in the can until Part Of The Union charted in 1973.
They did get signed not that long afterwards - the first UK act on Herb
Alpert's A&M Records and recorded their first single "Oh How She Changed"
in 1968, which was produced and arranged by two highly influential
seventies' producers, Gus Dudgeon and Tony Visconti, who also worked on
their critically acclaimed first album, Strawbs, which was released in 1969.
After the folk-tinged Dragonfly, Cousins & Hooper added Rick Wakeman boards and Richard Hudson and John Ford on drums and bass respectively.
The new line up had their London debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, where
Wakeman was trumpeted as "Tomorrow's Superstar" by Melody Maker. Their
third album, Antiques and Curios, the first to have a US release, was taken
from that concert. Wakeman stayed with them for a further album, From The
Witchwood, then departed to join Yes, being replaced by Blue Weaver who had
previously been with Amen Corner and Fairweather This line-up produced
what many feel to be the archetypal Strawbs album Grave New World, before
yet another change, the departure of founder member Hooper, replaced by
rocker Dave Lambert, formerly of Fire and the King Earl Boogie Band.
Lambert's arrival in 1972 coincided with a move towards a harder rock
style, also evidenced by Cousins' solo album recorded that summer, with
guests such as Roger Glover from Deep Purple, Jon Hiseman from Colosseum.
The first single with Lambert on board "Lay Down" (recently spotted in one
episode of the BBC's Life On Mars) hit the UK charts at number 12, followed
by a single from the album penned by Ford and Hudson, "Part Of The Union",
which went up to number 2. The album Bursting At The Seams also reached
number 2 in the album charts and the band undertook a 52 date UK tour to
packed houses.
Unfortunately during the course of a US tour, tensions came to a head and
the Bursting At The Seams band did just that, with Hudson and Ford
splitting off to record their own material, firstly as Hudson Ford, later
as The Monks and High Society. Weaver also left the band, eventually
finding a comfortable (and highly lucrative) gig with the Bee Gees; he also
played with Mott The Hoople
Cousins and Lambert rebuilt the band, adding John Hawken (formerly
Nashville Teens) boards, Rod Coombes formerly with Stealers Wheel and
Chas Cronk on bass. This line-up recorded Hero and Heroine and Ghosts, and
tended to concentrate on the North American market with relatively little
touring in the UK. Strawbs still retain a great fan-base today in the US
and Canada. Hero And Heroine went platinum in Canada, and both albums
sold extremely well in the US too. A further album, Nomadness, recorded
without Hawken, was less successful, and was their last for A&M Records.
Signed to the Deep Purple-owned Oyster label, they recorded two more albums
with two keyboardists replacing Hawken - Robert Kirby, also known for his
string arrangements (notably Nick Drake) and John Mealing of jazz-rock
group If. Coombes was replaced by Tony Fernandez for a further album
Deadlines, this time on the Arista label.
Though recording was complete on a further album Heartbreak Hill, featuring
Andy Richards boards, Cousins' decision in 1980 to leave the band to
work in radio effectively signalled the band's demise, and the album
remained in the vaults for many years.
A reunion on Rick Wakeman's TV show Gas Tank in 1983, resulted in an
invitation to reform to headline 1983's Cambridge Folk Festival. The Grave
New World line up plus Brian Willoughby (who had replaced Lambert when he
left in 1978 during the making of Heartbreak Hill, and had also begun a
partnership with Dave Cousins as an acoustic duo from 1979 onwards) went on
from there to perform occasionally in the UK, US, and Europe over the next
few years, replacing Weaver with Chris Parren from the Hudson Ford band and
Ford himself (when he relocated to the US) with bass player Rod Demick.
1993 saw the band touring in the UK for their 25th anniversary, but the
next few years proved rather quiet. Until 1998, that is, when Cousins
staged a 30th anniversary bash in the grounds of Chiswick Park in London,
which saw several different line-ups of the band perform on a bright
summer's day in the open air. The final line-up of the night - Bursting At
The Seams line-up plus Willoughby - became the ongoing version of the band,
with an annual tour in 1999, 2000 and 2001.
An injury to Cousins' wrist coinciding with a Cousins & Willoughby
commitment brought Dave Lambert in to work with Cousins & Willoughby, which
soon became Acoustic Strawbs, recording an album Baroque And Roll in 2001.
That trio began to tour on a regular basis - first in the UK, then the US
and Canada, and on into Europe. The three guitars of Acoustic Strawbs
effortlessly reproducing much of the majesty and depth of the "big" Strawbs
keyboard-laden instrumentation. Willoughby was replaced by Chas Cronk
when Willoughby left in 2004 to spend more time working with his partner
Cathryn Craig. Chas has brought bass and bass pedals, which further add to
the depth of the Acoustic Strawbs sound.
2004 also saw the return of the Hero And Heroine line-up of the electric
band, touring in tandem with the acoustic line-up, and recording their
first new album for 25 years, Deja Fou, on the Strawbs own record label
Witchwood Records. Further releases, including some great archive releases
and a Strawbs boxed set A Taste Of Strawbs (2006) have followed.
+ + + + +
This site is brought to you by the Strawbsweb team, webmasters of the official Strawbs website. Strawbs regret that they are unable to answer messages through this site - please address any urgent queries for the Strawbs to Dick Greener.
Top Banner
End Top Banner
