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Asheley Hutchings' Rainbow Chasers

Ashley Hutchings Rainbow Chasers feature Ashley Hutchings on vocals and acoustic bass guitar; Ruth Angell on vocals, fiddle, violin, acoustic guitar and percussion, Jo Hamilton on vocals, viola, acoustic guitar and keyboards, and Mark Hutchinson on vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin, keyboard and tambourine.

Ruth Angell played violin on Jim Moray's album "Sweet England” and performed alongside him at the BBC Folk Awards 2004. She is also a member of the jazz ensemble Surge and also fiddle quintet formed by the Albion Band's Joe Broughton.

A member of Tickled Pink, Mark Hutchinson performs regularly with Simon Care and Guy Fletcher.

A singer-songwriter in her own right, Jo Hamilton previously worked with Ashley as a violinist and singer for the final Albion Band tour in 2004.

Born in 1945, Ashley “Tyger” Hutchings is probably the most famous and well respected bass guitarist on the folk scene, and is probably responsible for starting more English traditional folk bands than any other artiste!

Initially a blues bassist, in 1964 Ashley formed Dr K's Blues Band, and in 1996, with guitarist Simon Nicol, formed The Ethnic Shuffle Orchestra. A year later they’d evolved into Fairport Convention, with Richard Thompson, Martin Lamble and Judy Dyble.

In 1969, despite the phenomenal success of Fairport Convention’s “Liege & Lief”, Ashley, restless as ever, left Fairport and formed the band that never was….. they didn’t stay together long enough to get a name!

Ashley, of course, was on bass, and Gay Woods was on vocals and concertina, her husband Terry Woods on vocals and guitar, Johnny Moynihan on fiddle and Andy Irvine on mandolin and vocals. The band were together in the rehearsal stage for only three weeks, but when Johnny Moynihan decided to leave they called it a day.

Johnny Moynihan and Andy Irvine went on to become founder members of the mighty Planxty, whilst Gay and Terry went on to Ashley’s next project - the first incarnation of Steeleye Span, with Tim Hart and Maddy Prior, already established as a duo in the English traditional scene.

This first Steeleye Span line up convened in January 1969 and recorded the seminal “Hark, The Village Wait”. This line-up lasted all of four months - in April 1970 Gay and Terry Woods left, and Ashley drafted in Peter Knight on fiddle, and Martin Carthy on guitar and vocals.

This line - up gigged solidly, and released “Please to See The King” and “ Ten Man Mop (Mr Reservoir Butler Rides Again)” in 1971, and promptly folded in late 1971. Martin Carthy then went back to solo performance, and Ashley formed The Albion Country Band with his (then) wife Shirley Collins.

The Albion Country Band was the first of the “Albion Bands”, who metamorphosed into The Etchingham Steam Band and in 1978 became known simply as The Albion Band, with a veritable “who’s who” of top musicians on the folk scene passing through on a never ending journey….Richard and Linda Thompson, Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, Dave Swarbrick, Ric Sanders, Dave Mattacks, Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick, John Tams, Phil Picket, Shirley Collins, Steve Ashley, Royston Wood, Peter Knight, Vic Gammon, Graeme Taylor, Eddie Upton, Bruce Rowland, Roger Swallow and many, many more - there’s just not enough space in this article to name them all!

Forty years after first dipping a toe in the waters of the folk scene with The Ethnic Shuffle Orchestra, “the Guv’nor” still continues to delight and evolve, with his latest band, Ashley Hutchings Rainbow Chasers.

An Incomplete Ashley Hutchings discography

  • Fairport Convention (Fairport Convention - 1967)
  • What We did On Our Holidays (Fairport Convention - 1969)
  • Unhalfbricking (Fairport Convention - 1969)
  • Liege And Lief (Fairport Convention - 1969)
  • Hark, The Village Wait. (Steeleye Span - 1969)
  • Please to See The King (Steeleye Span - 1971)
  • Ten Man Mop (Mr Reservoir Butler Rides Again) (Steeleye Span - 1971)
  • Morris On (1971)
  • The Compleat Dancing Master (with John Kirkpatrick,1974)
  • Son of Morris On (1976)
  • Rattlebone and Ploughjack (1976)
  • Battle of the Field (The Albion Band, 1976)
  • Kicking Up the Sawdust (1977)
  • The Prospect Before Us (The Albion Band, 1977)
  • Rise Up Like the Sun (The Albion Band, 1978)
  • The BBC Sessions (The Albion Band, 1978)
  • Lark Rise to Candleford (The Albion Band, 1980)
  • Light Shining (The Albion Band, 1982)
  • Shuffle Off (The Albion Band, 1983)
  • Under the Rose (The Albion Band, 1984)
  • An Hour With Cecil Sharp (1986)
  • Stella Maris (The Albion Band, 1987)
  • By Gloucester Docks I Sat Down and Wept (1987)
  • Live At The Cambridge Folk Festival (The Albion Band, 1987)
  • I Got New Shoes (Albion Dance Band,1988)
  • Give Me A Saddle I'll Trade You A Car (The Albion Band, 1989)
  • The Best of 1989/90 (The Albion Band, 1990)
  • In Concert (The Albion Band, 1993)
  • The Guv'nor Volume 1 (1993)
  • Acousticity (The Albion Band, 1993)
  • Captured (The Albion Band, 1994)
  • Albion Heart (The Albion Band, 1995)
  • Demi Paradise (The Albion Band, 1996)
  • A Batter Pudding for John Keats (1996)
  • The Acoustic Years 1993 - 1997 (The Albion Band, 1997)
  • The Guv'nor Volume 2 (1997)
  • Happy Accident (The Albion Band, 1998)
  • Before Us Stands Yesterday (The Albion Band, 1999)
  • The Guv'nor Volume 3 (1999)
  • The Guv'nor Volume 4 (1999)
  • Christmas Album (The Albion Band, 2000)
  • The HDT Years (The Albion Band, 2000)
  • Along The Downs - The Countryside Collection (2000)
  • Folk Aerobics (2001)
  • The Ridgeriders (2001)
  • Street Cries (2001)
  • An Evening With The Albion Band (2002)
  • The Guv'nor Volume 5 (2002)
  • Grandson of Morris On (2002)
  • No Surrender (The Albion Band, 2003)
  • An Albion Christmas (The Albion Band, 2003)
  • Human Nature? (2003)
  • As I Cycled Out One May Morning (2003)
  • Still Dancing After All These Years (Albion Morris, 2003)
  • Great Grandson Of Morris On (2004)
  • Burning Bright (2005) (box set)
  • Morris On the Road (2005)
  • A Brilliant Light (Rainbow Chasers, 2004)
  • Some Colours Fly (Rainbow Chasers, 2005)
Ashley Hutchings’ Rainbow Chasers appear at South Parade Pier on Sunday August 27th 2006.

If you would like to contact Barking Spider, please email J.R. at spiderpromos@aol.com
or ring the
Barking Spider Hotline on: 023 9243 6267

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