The Strawbs

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The Strawbs is a rock band founded in 1964 in England. Originally known as the Strawberry Hill Boys, they started out as a bluegrass band and eventually moved onto to other styles (folk rock, glam rock, progressive rock, AOR).

Contents

1 History
2 Hit singles
3 Albums
4 DVDs
5 Film
6 External links

History

Their long time leader and most active songwriter is guitarist and singer, Dave Cousins (guitar, dulcimer, banjo, vocals).

Besides Cousins, long standing players were Tony Hooper (guitar, vocals), Ron Chesterman (bass), Rick Wakeman (keyboards) (later well known from Yes), Blue Weaver (keyboards), who also played with Amen Corner, Mott the Hoople and the Bee Gees, Richard Hudson (drums, vocals) and John Ford (bass, vocals). The latter pair had some hits as the duo 'Hudson-Ford'. Other members included Dave Lambert (guitar, vocals), Brian Willoughby (guitar), Chas Cronk (bass, vocals, guitar), John Hawken (keyboards) (also The Nashville Teens, Renaissance, Spooky Tooth, Vinegar Joe), Rod Coombes, formerly of Stealers Wheel, Tony Fernandez (drums)and Andy Richards (keyboards). In the early days the Strawbs played with Sandy Denny (lead singer of Fairport Convention and Fotheringay).

The group had its biggest commercial album success in the UK in 1973 with "Bursting at the Seams" lining up Cousins, Lambert, Hudson, Ford and Weaver, before Hudson and Ford quit to form 'Hudson-Ford' with the line up of Chris Parren: keyboards, Mickey Keen: Guitar, and sound engineer Ken Laws: drums. In America, however, the two following albums, Hero and Heroine and Ghosts, with newly recruited Hawken, Cronk and Coombes, were more successful. The band did several successful tours of the USA and Canada. While Strawbs are best known by many in Europe for their commercial successes (primarily "Part of the Union" and "Lay Down") these do not adequately reflect the outstanding quality of musicianship and songwriting for which they are known by their loyal fan base.

The picture cover of The Monks': Nice Legs Shame About The Face

As punk wiped out many of the progessive acts of the early and mid 1970s, Hudson, Ford and Terry Cassidy combined together with Clive Pearce on drums (Hudson was then playing guitar, having switched from drums) to produce 1979 album Bad Habits as The Monks. The album spawned a surprise number 19 hit in the UK singles chart - "Nice Legs, Shame About The Face" (right). They dabbled with 1930s style music in 1980 as 'High Society' before returning to the pseudo-punk format of The Monks for a follow up album released in Canada only, Suspended Animation with the addition of Brian Willoughby on guitar and Chris Parren on keyboards.  Whilst the album failed to produce further UK chart success, the band were huge in Canada particularly, playing stadium gigs as big as the Strawbs ever achieved, and Suspended Animation  went platinum in Canada too.  The CD re-release of Suspended Animation includes six bonus tracks, recorded for a third album, but never before released, by Hudson, Ford and Cassidy - Huw Gower guests on one track on lead guitar.

In Spring 2006 the Strawbs are still recording and touring, both in the "Acoustic" format comprising Cousins, Lambert and Cronk and also occasionally as the original "Hero and Heroine"/"Ghosts" line up of the "electric" band comprising Cousins, Lambert, Cronk, Coombes and Hawken. The "electric" line-up, together with special guest John Ford who flew over from New York for the tour, performed to highly appreciative audiences on a short UK tour in March 2006, culminating in the recording of a live DVD at the Robin 2 in Bilston. Release is expected in September 2006. Five further "electric" gigs are lined up for the UK in June 2006 (Glasgow, Sheffield, Penrith, London and Brighton) followed by a headlining appearance at a festival in Austria (Freilichtbühne, Thalgau, Salzburg). Full details of all forthcoming gigs can be found at the band's official website: www.strawbsweb.co.uk. A lively discussion group, "Witchwood" exists for fans - joining details can also be found at www.strawbsweb.co.uk.

Hit singles

"Lay Down" (UK #12 1972)
"Part of the Union" (UK #2 1973)
"Shine On Silver Sun" (UK #34 1973)
"I Only Want My Love To Grow In You" (1976)

The latter single from the Deep Cuts album was a radio airplay success, but despite good overall sales did not chart very well.

Albums

Strawbs (1969)
Dragonfly (1970)
Just A Collection Of Antiques And Curious (1970)
From The Witchwood (1971)
Grave New World (1972)
Bursting at the Seams (1973)
Hero and Heroine (1974)
Ghosts (1974)
Nomadness (1975)
Deep Cuts (1976)
Burning for You (1977)
Deadlines (1978)
Don't Say Goodbye (1987)
Ringing Down the Years (1991)
Heartbreak Hill (1995)
Halcyon Days (compilation, 1997)
Baroque and Roll (2001) (Acoustic Strawbs)
Blue Angel (2002)
Deja Fou (2004)
Full Bloom (2005) (Acoustic Strawbs)
Strawbs Live at Nearfest 2004 (2005)
Painted Sky (2005)
Recollections (2006)

DVDs

Complete Strawbs: The Chiswick House Concert (2002)
Strawbs Live in Tokyo DVD, plus Grave New World, the movie (2003)
Acoustic Strawbs Live in Toronto (2004)

Film

Grave New World (1973)
*Shot on videotape and comprising videos of most of the songs from the album of the same name, this had a limited theatrical release supporting the video of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Pictures at an Exhibition. The film, considered ahead of its time as an early music video, is paired with the "Strawbs Live in Tokyo 75" DVD.