The Wurzels

The Wurzels biography

The Wurzels (originally Adge Cutler and the Wurzels but renamed The Wurzels after Adge Cutler's death) are a British Scrumpy and Western band. The Somerset-based band is best known by many people for their 1976 number one hit "Combine Harvester", and number three hit "I Am A Cider Drinker" based on the song Una Paloma Blanca, but have a history stretching over 40 years, and still perform to this day.

Name

The name of the band was dreamed-up by the band's founder Adge Cutler. It appears to be short for mangelwurzel, a crop grown to feed livestock, and 'wurzel' is also sometimes used in the UK (perhaps only as a result of the band's name) as a synonym for 'yokel'.

The Wurzels' particular "genre" of music was named Scrumpy and Western after the group's first EP of the same name, issued early in 1967. Scrumpy is a name given to traditionally-made cider in south west England, popular amongst The Wurzels and their fans, and frequently referred to in their songs.

History

Adge Cutler and The Wurzels

The Wurzels were formed in 1966 as a backing group for, and by, singer/songwriter Adge Cutler. With a thick Somerset accent, Adge played on his West Country roots, singing many folk songs with local themes such as cider making (and drinking), farming, dung-spreading, local villages and industrial work songs, often with a comic slant.

During the latter half of the 1960s, the band became immensely popular regionally, and the release of the single Drink Up Thy Zider in 1966 led to national fame and it reaching number 45 in the UK charts, despite the B-side Twice Daily being banned by the BBC for being too raunchy. This was because it told the story of a farm labourer who begins a physical relationship with a female co-worker called 'Lucy Bailey'.

A number of live albums were recorded at local pubs and clubs, filled with Adge Cutler penned favourites such as Easton in Gordano, The Champion Dung Spreader, and Thee's Got'n Where Thee Cassn't Back'n, Hassn't? together with songs written by others and some re-workings of popular folk songs of the time.

Adge Cutler died after falling asleep at the wheel of his MGB sports car which then overturned on a roundabout approaching the Severn Bridge. He was returning alone from a Wurzels show in Hereford in May 1974. He is buried in Nailsea.

The Wurzels

Adge's death marked a turning point in the history of the Wurzels. Deprived of the main song-writing talent, the remaining Wurzels recorded The Wurzels Are Scrumptious! in 1975, an album containing many favourites from the back catalogue, including a number of previously unrecorded Cutler-written songs. In order to continue the surviving band needed its own songs, and these mostly took the formula of re-written popular pop songs of the time with the lyrics changed to include the usual Wurzel themes (cider, farming, local villages, Cheddar cheese, etc.)

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