Wotabunch!

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Wotabunch!
Wotabunch! cover
Studio album by Kilburn and the High-Roads
Released 1977
Recorded 1974
Genre Rock
Length 35:28
Label Warner Bros. Records
Producer Tony Ashton
Kilburn and the High-Roads chronology
Handsome
(1975)		 Wotabunch!
(1977)		 The Best of Kilburn & The Highroads EP
(1977)

Wottabunch! was released by WEA in 1977 following the success of Ian Dury as a solo artist it is technically the 'second album' by Kilburn and the High-Roads.

When talking about Kilburn and the High-Roads output in his track-by-track comments in the booklet for Repertoire Records 2CD Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Reasons to be Cheerful retrospective Ian Dury said

"The Kilburns made two albums, but they were both the same. the second one was to try and stop the first one coming out! In fact it didn't prevent them because Warner Bros. Records waited until Ihad some success and then they put out that album called Wotta Bunch."

This is very close to the actual events behind the release of Wottabunch. The album was recorded in January 1974 in Apple Studios on the prestigious Savile Row, London shortly after two line-up changes in the band with two long term Kilburns, bassist Humphrey Ocean and drummer David Newton-Rohoman, no longer in the band. In fact new bassist Charlie Sinclair had only just joined the group when the sessions began and Newton-Rohoman had been sacked virtually on the eve of the recording sessions being replaced by Louis Larose who was being paid by the day as a session musician.

Though the session went fairly well, with recording interspersed with trips to local pubs, there was a problem with capturing the band's live sound, this was a problem that the Kilburns had suffered before when making demos the previous year and would suffer again when making Handsome, some blame is given to Larose's conventional drumming and later on Handsome to producer Hugh Murphy, despite the trouble Wotabunch!'s versions are much closer to their live sound than the softer, polished Handsome versions. The band were pleased with the experience but what Dury was less pleased with however was the final outcome, while on he was on a week long holiday the album was remixed with the addition of strings. This was soon to be irrelevant however as shortly after the session was over Raft the record label that had signed the band folded. The bands were told that they would go to WEA who owned Raft but after a visit from their top man Joe Smith at a concert Kilburn & The Highroads were dropped.

However in 1977 following the success of Ian Dury's solo album New Boots and Panties!! and the critical response to Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll Warner Bros. Records issued the recordings from the Raft sessions as 'Wotabunch!' ('what a bunch!' meaning what an excellent group of people) as by 'Kilburn & The Highroads featuring Ian Dury' the cover with cardboard cut-outs of the band amidst stuffed animals is actually the wrong line-up of the band.

So far the album has not been re-issued onto CD

[edit] Track listing

All tracks written by Ian Dury and Russell Hardy unless otherwise noted.

  1. "The Call Up" - 2:24
  2. "Crippled With Nerves" - 3:02
  3. "Patience (So What?)" - 2:04
  4. "You're More Than Fair" - 3:03
  5. "Upminster Kid" - 3:26
  6. "Billy Bentley" (Dury, Hart) - 3:34
  7. "Huffety Puff" - 2:13
  8. "Rough Kids" - 3:15
  9. "The Roadette Song" - 3:05
  10. "The Badger And The Rabbit" - 2:39
  11. "The Mumble Rumble And The Cocktail Rock" - 3:41
  12. "Pam's Moods" - 2:57

[edit] Personnel

  • Ian Dury - Lead Vocals
  • Russell Hardy - Piano
  • Keith Lucas - Guitar
  • Charlie Sinclair - Bass
  • Davey Payne - Saxophones
  • Louis Larose - Drums


[edit] Sources

  • Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll: The Life Of Ian Dury by Richard Balls, first published 2000, Omnibus Press
  • Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Song By Song by Jim Drury, first published 2003, Sanctuary Publishing.
  • Reasons To Be Cheerful 2-Disc compilation first released 1996, Repertoire Records