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Scrumpy & Western

The definitive guide to the West Country music

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A.D. Rice & The Wazzuks

"the sounds of Adge Cutler"

biography | discography | review | gallery | links

Who Were A.D. Rice & The Wazzuks?

A.D. Rice and The Wazzuks was an Adge Cutler tribute band formed in 1999 in Bristol by the members of the punk band Chaos UK. The band played mostly Adge songs; nothing newer than 1974! The singer, a certain "Adrian D. Rice" hailed from Pill and was reputed to be the spitting image of Adge.

So, how did it happen that Bristol's premiere hardcore punk rock band, Chaos UK, form A.D. Rice and the Wazzuks, a tribute band to Adge Cutler and the Wurzels, the West Country's legendary bumpkin folk comic band? According to Gabba, Chaos's guitarist, it started with a visit to the dole office back in 1999, where he spotted a Buddha on the desk of the interviewing clerk. He figured that she might be open to a discussion about alternative music, and she happened to mention she was a friend of Adge Cutler's wife and she was quite surprised to find despite being a hardcore punk band the guys in Chaos were massive fans of The Wurzels...and so it was the band were given the opportunity to explore the potential of becoming a professional Wurzel tribute, with the blessing of the dole office.

Training commenced straight away on drinking plenty of scrumpy and studying the work of the late great Adge Cutler. This was acheived by Gabba swapping his original Vivian Westwoods Seditionaries Destroy swastika cheese-cloth shirt for the complete Adge Cutler collection on vinyl with Rikki from Red Flag 77, until the band agreed on a mission to raise awarenness Adge's work and hopefully in the process encourage EMI to release all of his vinyl recordings on CD format. And so it was, in the years 2000 and 2001 the Wazzuks toured venues around the West Country and even up to "Burnigum" singing about the joys of drinking cider and "other" West Country pastimes, before dissapearing into the stuff of legend, gone but not forgotten.

The band's line-up was Farmer Gabba 4Cox (git), Jug (inbread bass milker), Cow Pat (drums and pub), Philthy Spudd (drum 'n' cow bell), Adrian D. Rice (grunts and gerrr...) and Paul Zyder Violence (plastic skweze box). check out the band's Myspace page, and it might make more sense!

A.D. Rice & The Wazzuks

A.D. Rice & The Wazzuks in the pub, practicing hard for their next gig!

A.D. Rice & The Wazzuks

Adrian D Rice - frontman!

A.D. Rice & The Wazzuks

A.D. Rice and The Wazzuks' logo

A.D. Rice & The Wazzuks

A.D. Rice & The Wazzuks flyer

A.D. Rice & The Wazzuks Discography

CD    
A.D. Rice & The Wazzuks

Drunk Again - A.D. Rice & The Wazzuks

Live album recorded at the Florikan & Firkin in Bristol. Currently unavailable

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DVD    
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A.D. Rice & The Wazzuks Live DVD

Recorded live at Ashton Courty Festival. Currently unavailable

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Review of A.D. Rice & The Wazzuks

A.D. Rice & The Wazzuks at the Reckless Engineer, Temple Meads, Bristol (28th January 2000)

"Again another cracking evening down at the Reckless Engineer. Seeing them live was like going back in time to the Royal Oak in Nailsea - truly magical. The pub was completely packed out and a great old chap (who danced through the whole show) said it was the greatest thing he had seen since the original Wurzels back in the sixties. Vive la Scrumpy & Western! Drink up thee cider! Virtute et Industrial and see thee down the labour!"

A.D. Rice & The Wazzuks Links

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