errr… not a jot from me on this one ~ and it’s pointless trawling t’interweb to rehash the pre-known n’est ce pas?
9 September 2013
Chris The Siteowner
True, but still worth noting here that he was “a massive fan of Bristol City, his local side”, and that “he died when he crashed his MGB sports car on a roundabout in Chepstow”. His “Drink Up Thy Zider” has been described as the national anthem of Somerset. A novelty band The Wurzels may have become, but a fairly Biscuity one in so many ways.
9 September 2013
Bobby SVARC
I saw him in Weston Super Mare in 1972, Not impressed as a 12 yearold kid into Bowie, Mam and Dad liked them though. I remember he did a song about Gordano Services on the M5.
9 September 2013
The Bongomaster
Clearly a twinning arrangement should be made with the Wurzels Lyric Project, which reveals:
“Now some folks like to boast of their father’s occupation, Dustmen and the likes, and other situations. That’s so, our old man, working was ‘is pride, In ‘obnailed boots and gaiters, and a dung fork at ‘is side.
Chorus: Hi Ho, fiddle – iddle- o, Chesterfield to Cheddar, Hi Ho, the folks all know, he’s a champion dung-spreader!”
The chorus was changed during Adge’s later years to “Cheltenham to Cheddar”
9 September 2013
warden Hodges
Acquired the single ‘ Mother Nature Calling’ somehow. Deffo didn’t pay money for it when there was Panini stickers in the shop!!
9 September 2013
Rubber Faced Irritant
To my shame I know nothing about Adge Cutler, but I am a big fan of Ivor Cutler. One of the things he had in common with NB57 was frequent references in his verses to birds; both UK natives and visitors to these shores. So I always assumed the Woodcrest was a bird, albeit one I hadn’t heard of. So this thread ( apologies if I should be posting under Footprints) prompted me to look up said feathered friend. Guess what? It doesn’t exist. So what are we to make of this reference?
9 September 2013
Dr Desperate
Quite right, RFI, it doesn’t. It should probably be goldcrest (Regulus regulus) or firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus).
10 September 2013
Dawlishian
All I know is that ‘Adge’ comes from his initials, AJ, and I believe a biography was published recently.
10 September 2013
Beagle(ex-human)
Maybe the Woodcrest heard dying in the leafy thickness was the last of its species and is now extinct? or something…….
11 September 2013
Exxo
One slight and very tenuous link between Adge Cutler & HMHB is that Cutler’s sometime collaborator Trevor Crozier, a fellow Scrumpy & Western agitator who wrote or co-wrote more than one Wurzels classic, released a very obscure 1977 live album called, as has been mentioned on here, Trouble Over Bridgwater. Something HMHB never heard about till about 10 years after they released their own.
And @ Bobby Svarc, the Gordano song isn’t about the services, but the Somerset village Easton-in-Gordano, Cutler’s birthplace (a village with a posh suffix just to distinguish it from the other nearby Easton – a part of Bristol).
“I must go back againo To Easton in Gordano That’s the place where I was born On the twenty-first of May I saw the light of day On a bright and sunny summer’s morn Oh the cocks’ll be crowin’ The farmers all a-mowin’ The birds will sing so merrily For in sunshine or in raino Easton in Gordano is the place for I to be
I must go back againo To Easton in Gordano To see the old folks there Where the summery summer breeze Is full of bread of cheese To sniff once more that tangy river air Oh the lads I’ll be seein’ There’ll be some “How bist thee”-in’ From Sheephouse Lane to Portbury And there’s no need to explaino That Easton in Gordano is the place for I to be
I must go back againo To Easton in Gordano Can’t stay away no more I shan’t be satisfied Till I’m by the Avon side Standing again down by the old Pill shore When I get back yonder No more will I wander Far from the Kings Arms or Rudgleigh And no more I’ll complaino Cos Easton in Gordano is the place for I to be
I must go back againo To Easton in Gordano Down there in the west I’ve searched the whole land over From John O’Groats to Dover I still say that Gordano is the best Thee canst talk of Chewton Mendip Or Burnham by the sea Good old Shepton Mallett or Chipping Sodbury For in sunshine or in raino Easton in Gordano is the place for I to be.”
13 September 2013
Bobby SVARC
Thanks man, 1972 was along while ago!
13 September 2013
Jonah Varc
When I was at the Megalithomania Convention in Glasto in May of this year, I was very cheered to see a poster advertising a Wurzels’ concert in the Abbey grounds. According to the newspaper for locals, they were going to ” rock the ruins”. It was twopence to get in too, whereas Brian Ferry was going to charge an arme and a legge for his Abbey concert later on, leaving me to muse on what tribe I now belong to. Mark Radcliffe once had a great quiz question about Johnny Kid, Adge Cutler and Alex Harvey….but I can’t remember its exact wording….or the answer.
15 September 2013
Graeme Wright
I’ve always found a parallel between Adge Cutler & the Wurzels and Joy Division. Just as Joy Division morphed into New Order after Ian Curtis’ death so the Wurzels never ploughed the same furrow once Adge had gone to drive the Celestial Massey Ferguson.
15 September 2013
cuthbert muttonchops
the combine harvester….i am a cider drinker….the blackbird….give me england….tractor song…. BARD OF AVONMOUTH….
15 September 2013
2 Chevrons
Just discovered that he was Acker Bilk’s road manager.
20 September 2013
Ron Wood
Was Adge any relation to Horace Cutler ?
4 November 2013
MarkLG
Re comment 2: Adge himself was not a “massive fan” of Bristol City, he wasn’t that into football and his Bristol song Vertute et Industriale mentions both City and Rovers. The Wurzels’ connection with Bristol City came about after Adge’s death largely through Scottish Wurzel Tommy Banner, who is a big football fan, and the rewording of “Morning Glory” as “One For The Bristol City”.
27 January 2015
Huddersfield's very own... Steve malkmus
I used to live in Taunton and the aforementioned Gordano services always made me think of (Violent Females frontman) Gordon Gano. I’ve got nothing strictly on-topic though.
7 October 2015
Huddersfield's very own... Steve malkmus
Violent Femmes even. Damn you, autocorrect and damn you, inability to proofread.
7 October 2015
Brumbiscuit
Don’t tell anyone, but I’m seeing The Wurzels tonight. Ooh, arr!
27 February 2016
Kevin Payne
Just to clarify, Adge Cutler was born in Portishead.
23 September 2016
Charlie J george
Easton-in-Gordano has nothing to do with Easton in Bristol, nor was it named to distinguish itself from this neighbourhood.
It’s name derives from the Gordano Valley in which there are several similarly named villages – Western-in-Gordano, Clapton-in-Gordano and Walton-in-Gordano.
23 September 2016
EXXO
We know they weren’t connected – but surely all such villages are named to distinguish themselves from other villages with similar names. My road atlas contains 14 Eastons, 4 of which distinguish themselves with a suffix, and of those 4,at least 3 are close to other nearby Eastons. You might as well say that Nigel Blackwell isn’t named to distinguish himself from other Nigels.
There are also other Eastons with prefixes but they are harder to list for obvious reasons.
But talking of prefixes, today I was in Moor Monkton and Nun Monkton, and the different names enabled me to avoid confusion and know where to look on the map. I may well be in Bishop Monkton on Monday.
24 September 2016
EXXO
What I forgot to say there is that such names are determined largely by official cartographers of many generations ago, who often used to add a suffix to help ‘the authorities’ with the very common village names. The Somerset (Gordano) cartographer was one such.
24 September 2016
Paul f
Re the Monktons Exxo, coincidentally so was I. We are dropping our daughter at York University today and stayed last night in a b&b in Great Ouseborne. We took in the Monktons in an increasingly desperate attempt to find a pub serving food that wasn’t packed. I can now recommend the Red Lion at Upper Poppleton.
25 September 2016
paul f
*Ouseburn
26 September 2016
paul f
Did you get to Bishop Monkton, Exxo?
4 October 2016
EXXO
Indeed. Two half-decent pubs, which is twice as many as the other two Monktons combined, but then they are quite literally dead-end villages, as you noticed. Nice runnel. But still my third favourite Monkton, for fishing-related reasons of course.
Great place to go to college York is, and a great area for you to visit too. As for me, I rather stupidly chose my university for the fishing, when I was 16 years old, and then never did any fishing between the ages of 16 and 51. Which was stupid. But I’m making up for it now.
That’s the title of the third track off the next album, I hear.
9 November 2016
dirk hofman
.. mention of shite here a few days ago led me to check whether the Acker Bilk roadie whatnot had been shared .. yes, it had .. nice thread .. – would the jk/ac/ah question connection be that they died accidently on the way home from work ..?.. yes, virtuet industrial .. similarities ? _ Four Lads what shook the Worle, the Easton sages ..
Blimey, that is scary stuff. Where will Stuart Lee even start on deconstructing that one? With the fact that Mogg will be well aware of how Himmler & the Nazis used the imagery of stone circles? With the way British neo-Nazis were supposedly using stone circles a lot closer to home last summer?
Or with the fact that Cutler’s song is, anyway, a fairly clear piss-take of the ignorance it espouses? The song is introduced on the album with a throw-away remark about “[too many] immigrants .. already coming over ..that bridge (ie the brand new Severn Bridge).” The last song on the album, and one of the best, sings about the joys of getting pissed all day on benefits, and the pointlessness of providing work opportunities in Bristol – Mogg should perhaps do a video about that one too, the vile little f*ckwit.
✉ Letters Sent (33)
Skip to the most recent comment
(7 years ago by Exxo)
Poolio
errr… not a jot from me on this one ~ and it’s pointless trawling t’interweb to rehash the pre-known n’est ce pas?
9 September 2013
Chris The Siteowner
True, but still worth noting here that he was “a massive fan of Bristol City, his local side”, and that “he died when he crashed his MGB sports car on a roundabout in Chepstow”. His “Drink Up Thy Zider” has been described as the national anthem of Somerset. A novelty band The Wurzels may have become, but a fairly Biscuity one in so many ways.
9 September 2013
Bobby SVARC
I saw him in Weston Super Mare in 1972, Not impressed as a 12 yearold kid into Bowie, Mam and Dad liked them though. I remember he did a song about Gordano Services on the M5.
9 September 2013
The Bongomaster
Clearly a twinning arrangement should be made with the Wurzels Lyric Project, which reveals:
“Now some folks like to boast of their father’s occupation,
Dustmen and the likes, and other situations.
That’s so, our old man, working was ‘is pride,
In ‘obnailed boots and gaiters, and a dung fork at ‘is side.
Chorus: Hi Ho, fiddle – iddle- o, Chesterfield to Cheddar,
Hi Ho, the folks all know, he’s a champion dung-spreader!”
The chorus was changed during Adge’s later years to “Cheltenham to Cheddar”
9 September 2013
warden Hodges
Acquired the single ‘ Mother Nature Calling’ somehow. Deffo didn’t pay money for it when there was Panini stickers in the shop!!
9 September 2013
Rubber Faced Irritant
To my shame I know nothing about Adge Cutler, but I am a big fan of Ivor Cutler. One of the things he had in common with NB57 was frequent references in his verses to birds; both UK natives and visitors to these shores. So I always assumed the Woodcrest was a bird, albeit one I hadn’t heard of. So this thread ( apologies if I should be posting under Footprints) prompted me to look up said feathered friend. Guess what? It doesn’t exist. So what are we to make of this reference?
9 September 2013
Dr Desperate
Quite right, RFI, it doesn’t. It should probably be goldcrest (Regulus regulus) or firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus).
10 September 2013
Dawlishian
All I know is that ‘Adge’ comes from his initials, AJ, and I believe a biography was published recently.
10 September 2013
Beagle(ex-human)
Maybe the Woodcrest heard dying in the leafy thickness was the last of its species and is now extinct? or something…….
11 September 2013
Exxo
One slight and very tenuous link between Adge Cutler & HMHB is that Cutler’s sometime collaborator Trevor Crozier, a fellow Scrumpy & Western agitator who wrote or co-wrote more than one Wurzels classic, released a very obscure 1977 live album called, as has been mentioned on here, Trouble Over Bridgwater. Something HMHB never heard about till about 10 years after they released their own.
And @ Bobby Svarc, the Gordano song isn’t about the services, but the Somerset village Easton-in-Gordano, Cutler’s birthplace (a village with a posh suffix just to distinguish it from the other nearby Easton – a part of Bristol).
“I must go back againo
To Easton in Gordano
That’s the place where I was born
On the twenty-first of May
I saw the light of day
On a bright and sunny summer’s morn
Oh the cocks’ll be crowin’
The farmers all a-mowin’
The birds will sing so merrily
For in sunshine or in raino
Easton in Gordano is the place for I to be
I must go back againo
To Easton in Gordano
To see the old folks there
Where the summery summer breeze
Is full of bread of cheese
To sniff once more that tangy river air
Oh the lads I’ll be seein’
There’ll be some “How bist thee”-in’
From Sheephouse Lane to Portbury
And there’s no need to explaino
That Easton in Gordano is the place for I to be
I must go back againo
To Easton in Gordano
Can’t stay away no more
I shan’t be satisfied
Till I’m by the Avon side
Standing again down by the old Pill shore
When I get back yonder
No more will I wander
Far from the Kings Arms or Rudgleigh
And no more I’ll complaino
Cos Easton in Gordano is the place for I to be
I must go back againo
To Easton in Gordano
Down there in the west
I’ve searched the whole land over
From John O’Groats to Dover
I still say that Gordano is the best
Thee canst talk of Chewton Mendip
Or Burnham by the sea
Good old Shepton Mallett or Chipping Sodbury
For in sunshine or in raino
Easton in Gordano is the place for I to be.”
13 September 2013
Bobby SVARC
Thanks man, 1972 was along while ago!
13 September 2013
Jonah Varc
When I was at the Megalithomania Convention in Glasto in May of this year, I was very cheered to see a poster advertising a Wurzels’ concert in the Abbey grounds. According to the newspaper for locals, they were going to ” rock the ruins”. It was twopence to get in too, whereas Brian Ferry was going to charge an arme and a legge for his Abbey concert later on, leaving me to muse on what tribe I now belong to.
Mark Radcliffe once had a great quiz question about Johnny Kid, Adge Cutler and Alex Harvey….but I can’t remember its exact wording….or the answer.
15 September 2013
Graeme Wright
I’ve always found a parallel between Adge Cutler & the Wurzels and Joy Division. Just as Joy Division morphed into New Order after Ian Curtis’ death so the Wurzels never ploughed the same furrow once Adge had gone to drive the Celestial Massey Ferguson.
15 September 2013
cuthbert muttonchops
the combine harvester….i am a cider drinker….the blackbird….give me england….tractor song….
BARD OF AVONMOUTH….
15 September 2013
2 Chevrons
Just discovered that he was Acker Bilk’s road manager.
20 September 2013
Ron Wood
Was Adge any relation to Horace Cutler ?
4 November 2013
MarkLG
Re comment 2: Adge himself was not a “massive fan” of Bristol City, he wasn’t that into football and his Bristol song Vertute et Industriale mentions both City and Rovers. The Wurzels’ connection with Bristol City came about after Adge’s death largely through Scottish Wurzel Tommy Banner, who is a big football fan, and the rewording of “Morning Glory” as “One For The Bristol City”.
27 January 2015
Huddersfield's very own... Steve malkmus
I used to live in Taunton and the aforementioned Gordano services always made me think of (Violent Females frontman) Gordon Gano. I’ve got nothing strictly on-topic though.
7 October 2015
Huddersfield's very own... Steve malkmus
Violent Femmes even. Damn you, autocorrect and damn you, inability to proofread.
7 October 2015
Brumbiscuit
Don’t tell anyone, but I’m seeing The Wurzels tonight. Ooh, arr!
27 February 2016
Kevin Payne
Just to clarify, Adge Cutler was born in Portishead.
23 September 2016
Charlie J george
Easton-in-Gordano has nothing to do with Easton in Bristol, nor was it named to distinguish itself from this neighbourhood.
It’s name derives from the Gordano Valley in which there are several similarly named villages – Western-in-Gordano, Clapton-in-Gordano and Walton-in-Gordano.
23 September 2016
EXXO
We know they weren’t connected – but surely all such villages are named to distinguish themselves from other villages with similar names. My road atlas contains 14 Eastons, 4 of which distinguish themselves with a suffix, and of those 4,at least 3 are close to other nearby Eastons. You might as well say that Nigel Blackwell isn’t named to distinguish himself from other Nigels.
There are also other Eastons with prefixes but they are harder to list for obvious reasons.
But talking of prefixes, today I was in Moor Monkton and Nun Monkton, and the different names enabled me to avoid confusion and know where to look on the map. I may well be in Bishop Monkton on Monday.
24 September 2016
EXXO
What I forgot to say there is that such names are determined largely by official cartographers of many generations ago, who often used to add a suffix to help ‘the authorities’ with the very common village names. The Somerset (Gordano) cartographer was one such.
24 September 2016
Paul f
Re the Monktons Exxo, coincidentally so was I. We are dropping our daughter at York University today and stayed last night in a b&b in Great Ouseborne. We took in the Monktons in an increasingly desperate attempt to find a pub serving food that wasn’t packed. I can now recommend the Red Lion at Upper Poppleton.
25 September 2016
paul f
*Ouseburn
26 September 2016
paul f
Did you get to Bishop Monkton, Exxo?
4 October 2016
EXXO
Indeed. Two half-decent pubs, which is twice as many as the other two Monktons combined, but then they are quite literally dead-end villages, as you noticed. Nice runnel. But still my third favourite Monkton, for fishing-related reasons of course.
Great place to go to college York is, and a great area for you to visit too. As for me, I rather stupidly chose my university for the fishing, when I was 16 years old, and then never did any fishing between the ages of 16 and 51. Which was stupid. But I’m making up for it now.
4 October 2016
dr desperate
Immortalised in bronze in Nailsea.
9 November 2016
Chris The Siteowner
That’s the title of the third track off the next album, I hear.
9 November 2016
dirk hofman
.. mention of shite here a few days ago led me to check whether the Acker Bilk roadie whatnot had been shared .. yes, it had .. nice thread .. – would the jk/ac/ah question connection be that they died accidently on the way home from work ..?.. yes, virtuet industrial .. similarities ? _ Four Lads what shook the Worle, the Easton sages ..
10 August 2017
Transit full of keith
The spirit of Adge Cutler is currently being summoned to appear in a stone circle by Jacob Rees-Mogg in a sinister Tory pagan ritual. Or else it’s just the weirdest election video ever made: https://twitter.com/Jacob_Rees_Mogg/status/1201586173325594624?s=09
3 December 2019
EXXO
Blimey, that is scary stuff. Where will Stuart Lee even start on deconstructing that one? With the fact that Mogg will be well aware of how Himmler & the Nazis used the imagery of stone circles? With the way British neo-Nazis were supposedly using stone circles a lot closer to home last summer?
Or with the fact that Cutler’s song is, anyway, a fairly clear piss-take of the ignorance it espouses? The song is introduced on the album with a throw-away remark about “[too many] immigrants .. already coming over ..that bridge (ie the brand new Severn Bridge).” The last song on the album, and one of the best, sings about the joys of getting pissed all day on benefits, and the pointlessness of providing work opportunities in Bristol – Mogg should perhaps do a video about that one too, the vile little f*ckwit.
3 December 2019