Rainbow Chasers
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Rainbow Chasers are an English folk band, formed in 2004 by Ashley Hutchings (bass and vocals). Joining him are 3 young musicians, Mark Hutchinson (guitar and vocals), Ruth Angell (violin, guitar and vocals) and Jo Hamilton (viola, guitar and vocals).
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[edit] Biography
Ashley Hutchings may not be a young person, but one thing he likes doing is working with young people. One day he decided "I'm going to form a band of young musicians, if only I knew who to pick!". One day he went into a recording studio in Northamptonshire, and heard someone singing and playing guitar. It was the owner of the studio, a young man who goes by the name of Mark Hutchinson, who in 2003 joined Tickled Pink, lead by Simon Care. Ashley got Mark's number, and decided to let him in the band. Ashley was probably best known for his reputation of forming bands like Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and The Albion Band, which in 2004, still had Joe Broughton as a fiddler. Ashley asked Joe if we could recommend any one, and he recommended two girls who worked together as a local band were he lived in Birmingham, whose names were Ruth Angell and Jo Hamilton. So the four got together in Northamptonshire, and wrote some songs together, plus learnt some others (i.e songs written by Ashley and Jo, and some Traditional Songs). In November they went into Mark's studio and started recording their first album Some Colours Fly. In December they did a short tour, including an appearance at Huntingdon Hall in Worcester, which was released as a DVD in 2005. In January 2005, Some Colours Fly was released. The band now tour twice a year, once during February and March, and again during August, September and October. Rainbow Chasers have also made an appearance at the Cropredy Festival in 2006, which was the premier release of the second album Fortune Never Sleeps.
[edit] Songs
Rainbow Chasers write songs together, and on their own. Most of the songs on Some Colours Fly are Hutchinson/Hutchings or Angell/Hutchings. A lot of the band members do solo writing on Fortune Never Sleeps. The songs on the albums are all written by band members except Brambles on a Hill (Hutchings/Broughton) and Billy (Nik Kershaw). During gigs, the band often play songs that did not reach albums, such as: Damn the day, a modern version of the traditional song Adieu, Adieu. and Our Stolen Season a song written by Ashley Hutchings many years ago. The songs written by the band are often based on their own ideas. E.g, the song Those Broad Shoulders is about an elderly lady looking out in her garden, and seeing her full grown son, playing with his family, which makes her start looking back onto her son's life. The song Given Time is a true story, it's about the meeting between Ashley Hutchings and Nick Drake.
[edit] DVD
In 2005, Secret Films released a DVD of Rainbow Chasers live at Huntingdon Hall in Worcester, on December 15, 2004, only their third gig out of the six on that tour. The set consists of every song on Some Colours Fly except New Blue Stockings and Brambles on a Hill. It also includes songs not on the album (i.e Damn the Day and Our Stolen Season) Some of the DVD's consistency is different from what Rainbow Chasers do now. Like Ashley Hutchings playing acoustic bass which he does not do in Rainbow Chasers any more, he always plays electric bass. Also, Ashley Hutchings is standing in-between Ruth and Mark (but for some reason, this does not accure on the sound check), now he stands next to Mark at the end of the stage. Not only does it have the gig on the DVD, but it has an interview with Ashley about his life in music. It also has audio clips, and sound check footage. During the interview, Ashley mentions that since it's only their third gig, they are still making mistakes. He also mentions that they were still getting to know each other, since it had only been a matter of a few month since they met each other as a group (Mark and Ashley already knew each other, and so did Ruth and Jo). It mentions that Ruth wrote the song When I Jumped Ship, which is a mistake because in the booklet of Some Colours Fly, it says that it was written by Jo, Ruth, Mark and Ashley. When talking about the song About Dawn, Ashley mentions the Fairport Convention album What We Did on Our Holidays. He mentions that on the left hand side of the cover, there is a picture of the broken down band van.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Some Colours Fly, 2005
- New Blue Stockings
- When I Jumped Ship
- About Dawn
- The Gypsy Jigg
- The First Europeans
- Give Time
- Ghosts in the Rain
- He Throws a Brilliant Light
- Knitting Song
- Brambles on a Hill
- Under Surveillance
- Those Broad Shoulders
[edit] Fortune Never Sleeps, 2006
- Looking for a Change
- Stanley's Wake
- Surrounded by Strangers
- A Far-off Bay
- Poem
- There isn't any more to say
- The Lost Bagpipe
- Think of me
- Better be Smart
- The Trunk beneath the Bed
- The River's Tale
- Billy
- Fortune Never Sleeps
