Wishbone Ash

I've had a look through this section and I haven't found a thread about these guys, who have become one of my favourite bands, so I'll start one.

Wishbone Ash are a British rock band who were formed in 1969 with the original line up consisting of bassist Martin Turner, drummer Steve Upton and two guitarists, Andy Powell and Ted Turner. The original intention for the band was to have a guitarist and a keyboard player but after holding auditions Martin Turner and Upton could not choose between Powell and Ted Turner so they hired both and thus they became one of the first rock bands to used twin lead guitars and did so independently of the Southern rockers like The Allman Brothers. They are a clear inspiration for other bands with twin lead guitars such as Thin Lizzy and Iron Maiden, as well as for the guitar solos on Hotel California (coincidentally, their fifth album There's The Rub was produced by a certain Bill Szymczyk). There have been numerous lineup changes since they began although the two definitive lineups are considered to be the original one and the Mark II version with Laurie Wisefield replacing Ted Turner.

Their sound can be described as mixture of progressive rock, hard rock and folk, although the exact blend varies from album to album (for instance, the debut album has more hard rock, whereas Wishbone Four has several very folk-y compositions).

Their most iconic album and my favourite so far is Argus, their third LP. It is a great album and has somehow managed to find a happy medium whereby it is both commercially successful and critically respected but has never been subjected to the kind of hyperbole associated with most other classic albums. All seven of its tracks are top notch although Blowin' Free, The King Will Come and Throw Down The Sword would probably be my favourites. I am most familiar with the Mark I line up and really like most of the songs from the four albums they produced.

How strange! I was thinking this morning that I needed to start a Wishbone Ash thread. They were one of my favourite groups around 1973 and I saw them a couple of times in the 1970s. As I've heard and read all the easily accessable material for the Eagles, it may be time for a new/old obsession.

Wishbone Ash recorded in Miami with Bill Szymczyk immediately before the Eagles recorded Hotel California and may have been an influence - WA's Martin Turner claims that Bill's ideal at the time was Eagles vocals with WA's twin guitars.

A few weeks ago, I went looking for some Wishbone Ash to download but ended up buying Martin Turner and Friends "The Garden Party" instead and I'm enjoying it for what it is - a no-frills, live recording of Wishbone Ash songs performed by their original bassist/vocalist, his band and with special guests, guitarists Ted Turner and Laurie Wisefield. Steve Upton was there, too, but didn't play. There's a certain magic to it.

So I still need some real Wishbone Ash.

I have a suspicion that the history of the band is going to be even more intriguing than the Eagles. I've read about the lawsuit about the use of the name "Wishbone Ash" which was won by Andy Powell. Some of the court documents were available online and they tell quite a story. There's an autobiography by Martin Turner (called "No Easy Road") and it looks like Andy Powell is working on one.

ETA:
I was looking on youtube for the soundcheck from the Garden Party and instead found rehearsal footage of the band - one of the guitarists in wearing an Eagles t-shirt! Apart from that, it's neat to see the closeups of them playing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK_OfVhQa4M
And this was the one I was looking for:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAKWlEgm87E

Argus is the only album I've listened to of theirs, and I really liked it. Very good early 70s proggy hard rock. They remind me of another band of a very similar sound that I love called Atomic Rooster (Death Walks Behind You is an underrated early 70s gem).

I bought Wishbone Four on vinyl not long ago, but I've yet to listen to it ( I'm way behind on my music listening)

I just bought Wishbone Four this week actually, it's quite different from the first three - it's more mellow with fewer elaborate twin lead harmony guitar solos, there's still plenty of solos but they tend to be shorter and less complex. It's still very good though. My favourite songs from the album so far are Ballad Of The Beacon and Sorrel.

I'd liken it to Led Zeppelin III in that it shows some diversification from their previous work with several folk-influenced songs, while still being recognisable, and it does have its share of harder rockers like So Many Things To Say and Doctor. In actual fact, rather like Led Zeppelin did when they were working on LZ III, they decamped to a rural cottage in Wales which inspired some of the material.

Come to think of it, another Eagles connection is that the horn section featured on No Easy Road includes Phil Kenzie, who played the sax solo on The Long Run on Eagles Live.

I want to get the debut album on CD as well (to complete the set of four albums by the Mark I line up), I've searched for it in a few shops but haven't found it anywhere yet though - I might have to order it. Like quite a few hard or progressive British rock bands, they are very much an album band.

I'm behind on listening to a couple of albums as well, there's a couple I bought a while back that I've yet to get around to listening to in full so you're not alone AG95.

"No Easy Road" was originally recorded, without horns, as a single which was released in 1973. "Blowin' Free" is on the other side.

Saw Wishbone Ash for the first time last month here in Joburg. I have to confess to not being that familiar with the material but I thoroughly enjoyed the concert. They only played the title track from Blue Horizon, I would have liked hearing more of the newer stuff but overall a great show. :thumbsup:

Back in 2013, Andy Powell and Martin Turner went to court about the use of the name "Wishbone Ash". It makes interesting reading if you've ever wondered about the legal status of a band. It goes through partnerships, corporations, contract musicians, goodwill, trademarks and so on. It's a mess.
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/IPEC/2013/3242.html

I'll listen to Argus. I'm aware of Wishbone Ash but am not familiar with their music. I quite like Prog when the songwriting is good enough. Without wishing to name names, there are some Prog bands that write big convoluted tracks without the musical interest to back up the track length.

Wishbone Ash, especially Argus, owe a lot to english folk and to choral music. Very melodic and the lyrics have both biblical and medieval roots (I think), although some are more modern. Jailbait came from the band's first visit to the US when they got worried about underage groupies.

Wishbone Ash have a unique and interesting sound. I feel this band has been unfortunate to slip under the radar, as no big name band truly occupies their niche. On the plus side, this means none of their songs are overplayed or overexposed. I will discuss the Mark I version of the band as that is the era I am most familiar with. Above all I would say they sound very British, particularly on Argus but really throughout the first three records. Even Wishbone Four, which has some quite American-sounding songs compared to the previous three albums, still has some lyrics which I feel are recognisably British (The Ballad of the Beacon is one, as is Sing Out The Song, the sound of people having a melancholy glass of beer in a pub on a warm summer's evening).

They are a very guitar based band, as their classic line up consists of two guitarists, a bassist (who often plays like a rhythm guitarist) and a drummer, which immediately sets them apart from many progressive rock bands, where the keyboardist is a crucial member. The closest comparison amongst the bands I know reasonably well would be the more English folk-inspired elements of Led Zeppelin (think The Battle of Evermore or Over The Hills and Far Away). Even then this is a stretch, as Wishbone Ash's music is, for want of a better term, less 'sexual' than Zeppelin's, and their music is more influenced by British folk music than American blues artists. Another important difference is that the band lacks a charismatic frontman like Robert Plant, with vocal duties being shared between the guitarists and bassist. Like the Southern rock bands (Allman Brothers, Skynyrd), they use multiple lead guitars, but to be honest the comparison with those bands ends there. They don't really have anything else in common with them. I have sometimes seen their guitar sound be compared with Ritchie Blackmore's in the same era, but while this is similar (the riff on Lady Whiskey is not a world away from that of Bloodsucker, for instance) again there are a lot of differences - Wishbone Ash's songs are more melodic and the singers don't usually scream like Ian Gillan.

On Argus, side two has most of the songs with the biblical lyrics (The King Will Come) or medieval lyrics (Warrior and Throw Down The Sword), whereas side one isn't set in a specific time period - I assume songs like Sometime World and Blowin' Free were set in the present, but there's nothing to say they have to be. Definitely the best place to start with their music IMO - very strong from start to finish and it's one of my top twenty favourite albums.