Roy Weard - A Musical History VIII

THE LEGENDARY WOODEN LION gets a makeover.

The thing about bands is that they are a dynamic enitity all to themselves. Christmas 2011 saw Steve Bensusan and Chris Mott decide to leave the band. This was a blow in many ways because we had released the CD and I was trying to promote it. Quite apart from all of that Steve was always an inspirational guitarist to work with and manys of the songs were principally written by the two of us. Throughout the time that we were working together we had all been good friends. Like all bands - or groups of people for that matter - there were tensions and fall outs but, on the whole we got on and had a good time - not to mention making some of the best music I have ever made.

At first the Cardinal and I, together with Chris Cottage decided to try some new guitarists and drummers. Given the problematic nature of finding new drummers we were not looking forward to that but we spoke to a few people and put out some feelers. We had only one show booked, Kosmik Ken's Psychedelic Dream Festival, and we were trying hard to find a line up to do that. This was when I found Gav Cantrell. Gav is a young guitar player with an amazingly diverse skill set. I had also been in contact with John Issacs, former drummer with Alternative TV. We had a rehearsal down in Brighton and it seemed to go well but both the Cardinal and Chris decided they could not continue. John had wanted to join the band but had family problems so couldn't do it.

This left just Gav and I and a big gap where a band should be. I decided that i was not going to make the same mistake I made when The Last Post folded. Back then I could not face doing it all again with a new band but this time I felt more determined to get back into it. I had been working with Cliff Dowding on various projects, including the production of the Skeleton Key album, and he was keen to play keyboards. We also recruited Andy Power, bass player from Cliff's other band, The Summerian Kyngs, which just left us with a drummer void. after a few attempts and invitations to drummers we finally hooked up with Joshua Simpson and began to rehearse in earnest.

The band was obviously not going to be the same. Again I was, as I had been in the distant past of Wooden Lion, the only remaining member. Some songs worked with this band and some didn't. The really interesting thing with all of this is that writing songs draws you in. At the moment there are six new songs, the lyrics to which will go up on this site soon. There are a few other new songs in the pipeline and I would like to do a new album sometime this year. I miss my former bandmates from the first incarnation of this band but we remain friends. four of them have been playing together and you can find details of that on their Facebook page. They have also done the odd show with Roy coming on to do a set with them. Details of these, and any upcoming performances can be found on the Gigs Page and in The Captain's Blog.

In the meantime the new lineup of That Legendary Wooden Lion made its debut at the Real Music Club (where else?) on 28th April 2013. You can see pictures from that show by clicking on the poster below and there is a video of one of the new songs too.

In August 2013 Gav was taken to hospital and has had to undergo several operations. So, once again, That Legendary Wooden Lion was on hold. He is recovering, albeit slowly, and in the meantime the rest of the band and I continued to rehearse and work on new material.

To bring things up to date now - in 2020 - there is, currently, no band in existence. The solo album 'This House In Amber' came from the writing I did with the musicians in the later version of TLWL and featured them along with John Trelawney on brass and violin, Nick Pynn on violin, mandocello and singing saw and Gregg McKella on clarinet among others.

If the situation changes there will be a new page for it to live on.

 

Click on the Poster for pictures from the first gig

Video taken at The Real Music Club @ The Brunswick 28/04/2013

At the end of 2014 we recruited John Dowle to play guitar and set the ball rolling again. after a few rehearsals things began to settle into place again and we added a couple of new songs to the mix. The new lineup began working towards its first outing and we were joined by Pixie Tonks Dhel on backing vocals. The first show with this line up came on April 5th at the Brunswick in Hove at a special show to launch the publication of Roy's book 'The Way To(o) Weard'. Pictures from that gig are below.

Click on the Picture for the slide show. Brunswick 05-04-2015

The The Captain's Blog detailed the story from the start of TLWL and it continues to do so.