The Wurzels - A fun Christmas party!!!

Wurzels get their long awaited Bath

The Wurzels ***1/2 released their first single in 1966 and the oldest member on stage, squeeze box player Tommy, has been with the band since 1967. OK, maybe not quite the longest active band as The Rolling Stones started in 1962 but The Wurzels are right up there. What is most noticeable is the age of the crowd; from eighteen to eighty with everyone getting fully involved, in fact they apparently have a quite a cult student following apparently.

For those unfamiliar with them, they play ‘Scrumpy and Western’ which equates to traditional instruments - squeeze box, guitar, organ, bass, and drums with vocals in a very pronounced West Country tone. Most of the band hail from the area around Bristol and into Somerset, apart from Tommy who comes from just outside Edinburgh naturally. Vocal duties are taken up by Pete Budd these days, well they have been since 1974 when originally singer and songwriter Adge Cutler died in a car crash.

It’s not only the crowd that have quite an age range, but the band are also aged from twenty six with the drummer up to Tommy’s eighty four years young. The songs are all well known and designed to be easy to sing along with, drinking songs in effect. Often the chorus will be spoken before they play so everybody can join in, after walking onto a recorded version of ‘The Boys are back in Town’ by Thin Lizzy they open the live music with ‘Blackbird’ quickly followed by ‘Champion dung Spreader’.

Most of the songs have either an agricultural theme or are about the places in and around Bristol and Somerset such as the ‘Shepton mallet Matador’ and ‘Pill, Pill I love Thee Still’ (Pill is a place near Bristol) just in case anyone mistakes any drug references or similar. While they are all accomplished musicians the songs are mostly fun, this is a chance to have a great time not sit back and watch in the same way you would the London, Philharmonic. In fact, the lead singer even suggests we forget all the problems outside and enjoy yourself, perfect advice for an evening like this.

The original members are starting to show their age a bit now, but then if I can entertain a room of one thousend people at eighty three I’ll be impressed. I noted that Tommy doesn’t play his instrument, bar the odd note now. I don’t think that matters though, as I say it’s as much show as concert and he is doing a great job of keeping everyone singing along to nearly every word. For this time of year you could almost compare it to an adult panto, without the need to employ a Z list celebrity, but hey I still love pantos anyway.

Away from my festive theatre choices and back to the Wurzels. As I say this is quite a sing a long type of gig and the mass singalong of ‘White Christmas’ was getting a room full of people all in a festive mood. It’s not the only cover either, first song of the encore was a number 1 hit, but not theirs but Kaiser Chiefs ‘Ruby’ with nice west county ooh aah replaced in the chorus. Next up was the dance remix of ‘Combine Harvester’ (yes really) and final track ‘Drink up thee Cider’ for which I duly obliged. The end of a wonderful evening of fun and singing, I think everyone should see The Wurzels at least once, you certainly come away with a smile on your face.

Review and Photos by Jon Cooper

Check Out! the Video for their Kaiser Chiefs cover of 'Ruby' Below...