In the early 1970s, a strange apparition began to appear on the stages of a vibrant UK gig circuit in the shape of a band of West Country troubadours, rejoicing under the odd name of Stackridge. Their music presented an extraordinary mix of styles, containing genres as diverse as folk, classical, progressive rock, jazz, pop and music hall.Alan Draper traces the ever-diverging and remerging paths of the core four Stackridge songwriters: Andy Davis, James Warren, Mutter Slater and Crun Walter, both within and without Stackridge. It's a trip that spans half a century of recording. Commencing with their eclectic debut album Stackridge in 1971, it proceeds via many fascinating musical paths and occasional cul-de-sacs.The band's 1970s heyday was marked by many personnel reshuffles and after their dissolution in 1976, James Warren and Andy Davis combined to form The Korgis, who scored worldwide hits with 'If I Had You' and the much-covered standard 'Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime'. Also taking in The Korgis, Mutter Slater Band and Davis and Warren solo projects, our trip finally arrives in the 21st century as Stackridge returned for a second career and a heroes' welcome from their dedicated fan base.
Alan Draper is a writer and musician living in Fareham, Hampshire, UK with his wife Radiance. Starting his musical career as the guitarist with The Alsatians in 1978, he wrote both sides of their 1980 single. His song 'Complications' featured on the album Rocking With The Renees by The Gymslips, a top twenty hit on the independent chart in 1983. His first solo album Earth Magic appeared in 1989, followed by Ascension Day in 1999, both displaying folk, classical and progressive rock influences. Prescription, an album featuring his covers of Stackridge rarities was released in 2007, raising money for the Macmillan Nurses Fund.
In the late-1960s, the British blues boom was in full swing – a back-to-the-roots movement led by bands such as John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack and Savoy Brown, which saw the deification of a new breed of guitarist, spearheaded by Eric ‘Slowhand’ Clapton and the sublime touch of Peter Green: leader of Fleetwood Mac. Over in Bristol, two acolytes of Peter Green’s playing were guitarists Andrew Cresswell Davis and James Crunberry Walter. In 1968, their mutual respect for the blues brought them together and they formed the band Griptight Thynn: a name chosen in honour of a character from the influential 1950s radio programmeThe Goon Show. Davis had previously learnt his chops as a member of holiday-camp specialists The Blue Crew back in 1966 and The Kynd in 1967, while his erstwhile partner – using the first-name appellation Crun (yet anotherGoon Show reference!) – had plied his trade with local bands The Mike Gray Quartet in 1966 and Sunken Rake in 1967. The new blues-powered Griptight Thynn consisted of Andy Davis on guitar and vocals, Crun Walter on guitar, Duncan Graham on bass, and drummer Dave Fortune, and they became regulars at Bristol haunts The Dug Out and The Granary, where they supported upcoming acts like Caravan and jazz rock band Heaven. On one occasion in 1968, they were supported by local band Obsession, whose singer Mike Tobin would end up managing Davis and Walter in Stackridge a few years down the line.
By the summer of 1969, the two Griptight Thynn guitarists jointly felt like they wanted to expand musically into more exploratory territory, and quit the band with plans to form a new, more adventurous unit, no doubt influenced by the evolution of psychedelia into a new underground that was later christened progressive rock. Initially using the name The Vera Lynn Experience, the new band soon adopted the moniker Stackridge Lemon, as Crun Walter swapped to bass guitar, Andy Davis remained as singer/guitarist, Bob Thompson was drafted in on keyboards and Tony Fennel (ex of East of Eden offshoot Barnaby Goode) sat in on drums.
Many personnel reshuffles took place over the next year, and at times the band resembled a musical roundabout. The legendary Murray Smith came in on slide guitar during 1969 – as later immortalised in the song ‘32 West Mall’: a Bristol address at which the band were tenants that year. Murray Smith’s tenure with the band didn’t last the year out, though, despite his legend living on. The timings of various band inductees appear nebulous through this era, differing with alternate accounts. But Andy Davis had befriended James Warren earlier in 1969, as their respective bands Griptight Thynn and Dawn (not Tony Orlando’s crew, but an American West Coast-influenced outfit plying the Bristol Scene in 1969) were both habitués of The Dug Out and The Granary.
The first important gig for Stackridge Lemon was their debut at The Granary on Christmas Eve 1969, and it seems by this time they’d settled the drum position with Bill Bent, who was by now incumbent. They would also soon pick up prize asset Mutter Slater, who was previously gigging as part of a duo called Mick and Mutter. The pair had earlier been booked by Mike Tobin via the Plastic Dog Agency as support for a band called Marsupilami for a gig at Glastonbury Town Hall. Slater evidently made a strong impression on Tobin, as he was subsequently invited to join the latter’s latest band, who were eventually christened Pudding and who ended up sharing the bill with Stackridge Lemon at The Granary gig. As the Pudding lineup was in the process of dissolving, Crun Walter suggested to Andy Davis that they jo
