I reviewed Joe Danks’ last full album, the maritime-themedSeaspeak, when it came out in 2021. Gosh, was that three years ago already? How time flies. Anyway, he’s followed that up with a four-track EP of original material that’s already been out some four months. I’m rather later to the party with this one but never mind. This is a release that’s certainly still worth writing about.
Take Courage marks the first time Danks has released original music under his own name in a decade. I remember seeing that slogan everywhere when I was younger. In particular, it was a familiar sight whenever I passed the Amersham Arms as a student at Goldsmiths in southeast London and later when I was as a local councillor for the area. Artist, Henry Fothergill has come up with some suitably irreverent pub-themed cover art which gives me quite a nostalgic glow. And it’s only when I research a little further that I release the pub on the cover is actually the Amersham Arms and did, indeed, inspire the title track, Danks, like myself, being a former resident of the area.
So what of the music? “Old-fashioned, melodramatic and beautifully recorded,” Danks promises in the accompanying blurb, which turns out to be a perfectly apt description.
The four songs range from the highly personal (‘Take Courage’ where Danks draws lessons from passing that familiar pub sign and ‘Bluster’ reflecting on that return to everyday life after the untrammelled joy of a summer festival that many of us have experienced); to classic story songs (‘Mr McDonald’ about undercover policing and fraudulent identities); to the charmingly eccentric (‘Station Jim’ a tribute to the Victorian-era stuffed dog on display at Slough railway station).
As promised, the EP is exquisitely produced, with collaborating musicians (Danny Pedler, Lukas Drinkwater, Beth Noble and Ben Davies providing additional depth to Danks’ warm, sincere vocals, charming storytelling and appealing melodies. Namechecking Scott Walker, The Divine Comedy, Villagers and Nick Drake as influences, that’s not merely hyperbole but points to the singular but eclectic display of talent that’s on offer here.
Joe Danks – Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Bouzouki, 5 String Banjo, Drums, Percussion, Programming
“So, Darren, out of your vast collection what was the first CD you ever bought?”
It’s a question I’ve been asked on numerous occasions and one that often pops up on various CD collectors’ forums on social media. For me it, was actually this one – Read an’ Willin’ by Whitesnake.
I didn’t even own a CD player at the time but I bought it for my dad’s birthday in 1989 when it came out on CD for the first time. We both loved the album when it was first released on vinyl back in 1980 and Whitesnake were one of the first bands I saw when my dad took me to the Monsters of Rock Festival at Donington in 1981.
When my dad died in 2007, I inherited it back again and a number of years later, Whitesnake guitarist Bernie Marsden actually signed it for me. With my dad no longer here and Bernie Marsden no longer here it’s an important memento and an integral part of my collection. I wouldn’t part with it.
And so to Butlins again for another music weekend. Although I’ve been to many such weekends over the years, with the demise of theGiants of Rock Weekend at Minehead and the Rock & Blues and the Great British Folk weekends at Skegness, my main reason for visiting Butlins these days is for the ever-popular We Love the 70s weekend. And, handily for me, this one is available at the Bognor site so it’s just a shortish trip along the Sussex coast from Hastings, rather than a mammoth cross-country trek.
Again, I doubled it up with some volunteering for the learning disability charity I volunteer for. Gig Buddies is a great project that matches up an adult who has a learning disability with a volunteer so they can go out, stay up late and have fun. And because it’s all done through volunteering, there are no budget constraints, rotas or timesheets to worry about in terms of paid support staff. Myself and my fellow 70s music fan and very good friend, Daniel, have been gig buddies for several years now but we only did our first Butlins weekend together last year. It was a brilliant success and a shed-load of fun so we were both really keen to do it again this year.
Darren (left) and Daniel (right) enjoying the funfair at Butlins
The line-up this year was the usual mixture of tribute acts, covers bands, original 70s bands (although usually with no more than one or two members from their glory years these days), and the odd genuine bona fide 70s legend.
Tribute acts
In the first category we had Elton John, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Abba tributes among others. We also had a couple of slightly-more-than-tribute-acts, in the shape of Mud II, which evolved out of original Mud singer’s Les Gray’s backing band and Quo Connection, the majority of whom had worked with original Status Quo drummer, John Coghlan, in John Coghlan’s Quo prior to his retirement. Very much at the rockier end of this weekend’s entertainment, Quo Connection were definitely one of the highlights for me, pulling off convincing renditions of classic-era 70s Quo songs like ‘Caroline’, ‘Down Down’ and ‘Whatever You Want’.
Quo Connection
Covers bands
In the second category, Glam Rock UK blasted out an entertaining selection of glam covers each evening – great if you weren’t particularly fussed about one of the bands on the main Centre Stage or were just looking for a late-night boogie after you’d caught the bands you really wanted to see.
Actual 70s bands
In the third category this year, bands included The Glitter Band (with original vocalist John Springate and original drummer Pete Phipps), The Bay City Rollers (with Stuart Wood now clocking up 50 years as a Roller) and Racey (still with original members Phil Fursdon on guitar and Clive Wilson on drums).
The Glitter Band were a late replacement for Slade who had to bow out as Dave Hill is currently unwell but they were definitely the glam highlight of the weekend for me. With John Springate back fronting the band, he joked at one point that he was the only original glam singer still around these days. And with Marc Bolan, Brian Connolly, Les Gray and Alvin Stardust no longer with us, Noddy Holder retired and Gary Glitter safely put away in prison – he’s certainly not wrong.
John Springate – The Glitter Band
The Glitter Band may have only one drummer these days but Pete Phipps has been pounding that glitter beat since the early days. And while there’s no brass section anymore either, Springate paid tribute to sadly now-departed members Harvey Ellison and John Rossall, along with late guitarist Gerry Shepherd. And with that signature Glitter Band sound, they pumped out many of the band’s best-known tracks, including hits like ‘Angel Face’, Just For You’ and ‘Let’s Get Together Again’. And they even thew in a few Gary Glitter numbers as well, including ‘Rock and Roll (Parts One and Two)’ and ‘Leader of The Gang’. If anything could be classed as guilty pleasure it’s these but they were undoubtedly glam classics back in the day – and probably would still have been even if Mike Leander (producer, songwriter and the genius architect of the glitter sound) had never set eyes on Paul Gadd in the first place and found himself a different frontman.
True legends
The final category I mentioned was bona fide living legends and Leo Sayer definitely fitted into this. With the cavernous new Studio 36 complex absolutely packed out for his early evening slot, he delivered a performance of sheer class. While the rest of the weekend was about enjoying some great, fun gigs at a holiday camp this was at another level altogether – a stunning show that just oozed professionalism, charisma and quality song-writing. The atmosphere in the auditorium as he reeled off hit after hit was simply incredible and I suspect everyone there shared that same feeling that they were in the presence of a true legend.
Leo Sayer
And Daniel’s verdict? He awarded ten out of ten for every artist we saw (plus ten out of ten for the food and the chalet and the swimming and the funfair!) Both of us are looking forward to coming back next year.
The revamp of the White Rock’s downstairs area into a more intimate studio space below the main theatre means the venue is now well-equipped to host two gigs simultaneously on the same night. Upstairs in the main auditorium was the Bob Marley tribute show – Legend, while downstairs in the studio we had a bona fide living legend in the shape of Martin Turner.
Turner was, of course, one of the founding members of Wishbone Ash and its bass-player and lead vocalist from the band’s formation in 1969 until his departure in 1980. Although he had a couple of reconciliations with Andy Powell in the 80s and 90s (the sole remaining original member of Wishbone Ash) for the past two decades Turner has been on the road with his own interpretation of the band’s legacy. I first caught Turner and his band in 2010 performing the classic 1972 Argus album in full at the first High Voltage festival in London and again doing similar at one of the Butlins Giants of Rock Festival a few years later.
For this tour things are fast-forwarded a few years, with a set-list focused around celebrating the Wishbone Ash Live Dates Volume 2 album, released in 1980. It follows a previous tour last year, performing the original 1973 Live Dates album in its entirety.
I’ve never actually owned either of the Live Dates albums and I’m generally a lot more familiar with the band’s early ‘70s studio material than with later releases – so the full set-list won’t all be entirely familiar to me. Nevertheless, it’s a gig I’ve been looking forward to for many months and Turner and his band have never disappointed when I’ve seen them live.
Performing two hour-long sets with a short half-hour interval in the middle, it’s a superb night packed full of Wishbone classics. I won’t say I haven’t enjoyed Andy Powell’s ‘official’ version of the band when I’ve seen them live but, for me, what gives Turner’s outfit the edge is being able to hear the original voice behind many of Wishbone Ash’s most famous songs live on stage. And his bass-playing is as majestic as ever. Moreover, the twin lead guitar work, courtesy of Danny Wilson and Misha Nikolic who have both been with the band a good number of years, is just absolutely stunning and does the band’s legacy proud.
Wilson also took the lead vocal on a couple of songs that had originally been fronted by Laurie Wisefield and his predecessor Ted Turner back in the day. The line-up is completed by the new boy of the band is drummer, Sonny Flint – son of Blues Band legend, Hughie Flint – who has been with the band since 2022. He gets a special cheer when he’s introduced, not only for his excellent drum-work but also for being one of Hastings’ many resident musos.
Turner is an entertaining and affable frontman, with his between-song patter bringing a touch of old-time music hall to the world of progressive rock, as well as providing some fascinating insights into the inspiration behind a number of the band’s classic songs.
It’s the songs, of course, that made this such a special gig. And there was no shortage of memorable classics, including ‘Doctor’, ‘The Way of The World’, ‘Rock and Roll Widow’ (with lead vocal from Wilson), ‘Time Was’ and, of course, ‘Blowin’ Free’ a song inspired by a love-struck teenage Turner being on Dartmoor with a visiting Swedish girl. Turner told the audience that the rest of the band wanted to keep the track off the Argus album as it didn’t fit the more serious, proggy themes of the rest of the album. Turner responded by going “psychotic” and the song remained. Phew!
To A Sea Cliffis the third album from Anglo-Scottish folk ensemble Far Flung Collective. The collective was originally formed back in 2015 as part of a collaborative project between English SoundStorm Music Education Agency and the Scottish University of the Highlands and Islands, linking musicians from southern England with peers based in the Gaelic Outer Hebrides. A debut album, Far Flung Corners, emerged out of the project in 2017 with a follow-up, Black Bay, in 2020.
For this third album the long-standing nucleus of Alex Roberts (vocals / guitar), Wendy Stevenson (fiddle/whistle), Dan Somogyi (piano/guitar/bass) and Mabel Duncan (vocals/guitar/fiddle) are joined by seventeen new collaborators, as musicians and narrators, across the fourteen tracks.
Unlike its two predecessors, the recording of this album hit up against the constraints of covid lockdowns and so, created almost entirely online, recording took place at a much more leisurely pace over a period of two years (which makes me feel slightly less guilty about only now getting around to reviewing it, some six months after it was released).
Dan Somogyi: “We bounced ideas and recordings around, brought in musicians wherever we could get them locally, and refined ideas more than we would ever have time to do in normal circumstances. Out of adversity, new tunes emerged and the resultant album is something we’re very proud of.”
While the album as a whole is inspired by and celebrates some of the incredible coastline of the British Isles, it’s arranged thematically. The first section, comprising seven tunes, was inspired by the landscapes of southern England and includes the wonderfully-atmospheric ‘Durdle Door’, written as a tribute to that famous natural wonder of the Dorset coast.
The next section, made up of two tracks, is about taking a look at things that unite communities in England and Scotland, whether it be coastline or culture, and includes a spoken-work part in both English and Gaelic. The third section then places the emphasis firmly on Scotland, with six newly-composed tunes, including a lovely tune-set made up of two new traditional-sounding Scottish jigs, written by fiddle-player, Anna-Wendy Stevenson.
For the final track, the album takes a completely left-field turn with an epic, nine-minute piece, ‘Avian Migrations (Dub of the Little Tern)’. Reminding us of our place in the wider world, we’re taken on a musical journey that incorporates free jazz, reggae, Afrobeat and the reworking of a Scottish reel from the Collective’s debut album.
While the album is fantastically varied, both musically and stylistically, it remains surprisingly cohesive and is absolutely brimming with vibrant and uplifting tunes, making for a fitting celebration of our incredible shared coastline.
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