Arriving at the venue, The Lamb Sandford, early on the
13th May to set up for the AGM, I could see that the
room was by no means packed out. However the AGM attendees
gradually filed in, in anticipation not of the administrative
business of Sustainable Crediton but of the Woodmen, a spin-off
band of Sustainable Crediton Woodland and Hedgerow members. Having
never seen the band in action before, I was a little unsure how the
night's events were going to unfold, but knew that with a sell out
gig at Shobrooke recently, this band weren't going down without a
dance-off.
Once the AGM was over the band appeared and two of them, John
Downes, singer and guitarist and one time John Lennon tribute with
the Beatniks, and Leslie Hampson, percussionist, walked somewhat
apprehensively into the spotlight to take their positions. The AGM
crowd which had swelled with fans from Shobrooke and Crediton
screamed adoringly for the entrance of charismatic front-man Pete
Mason, who bounded into centre spotlight without his trademark pork
pie hat. The threesome tonight were dressed in traditional but
trendy woodsmen shirts and jeans.
John introduced the first set as mainly covers of classic pop
songs many with a "wood" theme. True enough two of the first three
songs were Paul Weller and Beatles classics Wild
Wood and Norwegian Wood. By
now the band were well and truly warmed up and followed up with
more time-honoured standards including Going up the
Country, Bye Bye Love, Wonderful
Tonight and Crazy, all of
which showed just how versatile the band is. The audience's
favourite in the opening set was I'm a
Believer with Leslie Hampton doing an impressive
impersonation of Monkee's drummer Micky Dolenz on the cajone
drum.
After a short break, the band were back with a completely
different feel for the second set of songs. The first song, penned
by Pete Mason, was a future country and western classic entitled
Shobrooke Moon which went down very well
especially with the Shobrooke crowd. Next up were three sea
shanties Bound For South Australia, Whip
Jamboree and Mingulay Boat
Song. These really got the audience going with
everyone joining in with the choruses. If the audience had been
enjoying themselves for most of the night, it was nothing compared
to the excitement that erupted with the opening chords of the
band's first hit logging song Wood Party
, written and composed by Pete, which saw onlookers really get
involved with the music joining in with the choruses and the
unforgettable 'the buzz of a buzz saw buzz' chant. Perhaps the high
point of the evening was the band's rendition of The
Werewolves of London. This really
got the audience howling, dancing and barking along.
Shrugging off the typical wait backstage for two minutes encore,
the band went out on a high with CC
Ryder, which got several people on the floor dancing
and leaving everyone in the house wanting more. Overall, a
top-notch effort from the Crediton lumberjacks who really know how
to put on a show.
By Charles Mossman