The rubber woman blues
Last updated 09:25, Saturday, 27 September 2008
Alastair Duncan of www.fenderstrat.co.uk recalls the history of one of the bands he was in during the mid Seventies – The Hootenanny Blues Band.IN 1977 Richard Sutton, theatre director of the Carnegie Theatre in Workington, read an article about Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger forming a group called the ‘Hootenannies’ in America during the 1940s inviting folk singers, poets and other artists to turn up spontaneously.
Richard thought a similar idea might work at the Carnegie if he could get the right mix of blues and folk music, jazz and poetry. Neil Conroy suggested forming a Carnegie Hootenanny Band to be the regular house band.
The original lineup was Neil Conroy on guitar, Dave Murdoch on trombone, Cathy Helland (from Glasgow in Montana!) on piano, Richard Smithson on vocals and guitar, plus myself on lead guitar.
The first Hootenanny was held in what is now Monroe’s Bar at the Carnegie on November 3, 1977 and fortnightly thereafter. The Hootenanny nights were very popular, but because of the spontaneity, they could be very varied in content, from four poets and a folk-singer turning up, to great nights with bands like Arkitex and Eight Hertz playing.
The band evolved into a blues band with a basic lineup of Richard Smithson on vocals and bass, Mike Wall on sax and myself on lead guitar, with various people sitting in. One night a brass section turned up from the Whitehaven Jazz Club and a fabulous Blues Brothers type session took place.
When the Hootenannies eventually finished Richard and I played some gigs as a duo. The most memorable gig was when we were invited to play at the Keswick Convention (an internationally famous religious gathering). We went on stage to find ourselves facing a vast audience of dog-collared clergymen from all over the world.
Not knowing any suitable numbers we decided to play our usual set including The Inflatable Rubber Woman Blues with the immortal line “Inflatable rubber woman, I’ll never let you down”.
After the show we were congratulated on our performance by the Bishop of Wolverhampton - who probably hadn’t understood a word!
In 2006 the Hootenannies were revived by Buzz Elliott (of Hammerhead fame)
