THE ROCKINGBIRDS

Event information

The Rockingbirds began in Camden Town, London in the early 90s. Alan Tyler had temporarily “inherited” a large house on the Camden Road,and with a handful of songs from a previous country music effort, set about recruiting characters from the burgeoning local indie scene for a new band. Norfolk boy Andy Hackett, sound engineer at the Camden Falcon, was a early recruit, and he brought in two more East Anglians - pedal steel player Patrick Arbuthnot and harnony singer Sean Read. Alan knew the former Weather Prophets rhythm section Dave Morgan (drums) and Dave Goulding (bass) and with them on board the Rockingbirds began rehearsing in the basement of 123 Camden Road.

The band cut their teeth mainly at indie venues in front of astonished audiences more familiar with loud alternative rock and “The Camden Lurch”. They were soon picked up by maverick pop label Heavenly, who got Sony backing to release their first album. The self-titled debut The Rockingbirds came out to critical raves in 1992, and was loved equally by alternative music fans, country aficionados and singer-songwriter buffs. Defiantly bucking UK trends of the early 90s, The Rockingbirds anticipated the alt-country revolution, and sit comfortably alongside like-minded contemporaries like The Jayhawks and Uncle Tupelo.

The band toured the UK extensively and played all the major festivals (Glastonbury, Reading, Cambridge Folk Festival, Phoenix) and began to “enjoy” a reputation for their offstage (and sometimes onstage) shennanigans as much as for their music. This culminated in an ill-starred appearance at the Hulstfred Festival in Sweden in ‘92 which ended with unseemly scenes at Stansted airport and the unfortunate sacking of bassist Dave Goulding.

Goulding was replaced by new bassist Chris Clark, but changes at Sony meant The Rockingbirds were dropped from the label. Then followed a period of attrition for the band. Their second album Whatever Happened To The Rockingbirds? replete with banjos and fiddles and a more bluegrassy sound, finally appeared in 1995, but the writing was on the wall and the band split at an emotional farewell gig at the Garage, Islington in November 1995. The Rockingbirds still remaining friends but were now resolved to carve out careers elsewhere (see details below).

Wind forward to the end of 2008 and the band are asked to perform at the Heavnly 18th birthday show at the South Bank. Two years later they decide to re-form as a going concern and start recording again, culminating with The Return Of The Rockingbirds, out now on Loose Music.