Spriguns of Tolgus
Encyclopedia
Spriguns of Tolgus was an electric folk
group formed in 1972. They managed to obtain a record deal with a major label and the attention of some most significant figures in the folk rock world. They produced four albums with growing originality and recognition, but were unable to attain mainstream success and disbanded in 1978. Their lead singer, Mandy Morton, continued her solo career in Scandinavia and the band have now obtained a cult following.
, and Tolgus from a tin mine in Cornwall. Initially the band relied on traditional songs, particularly ballads, from England, Scotland and Ireland and were similar in sound to Steeleye Span
.
The Mortons were joined by Rick Thomas (fiddle) and Chris Russon (electric guitar), producing soft-focus electric folk on a self-financed tape recording Rowdy, Dowdy Day (1974). This drew them to the attention of Steeleye Span's Tim Hart
, who produced their first vinyl album Jack with a Feather (1975), contributing the song ‘Seamus the Showman’, beside traditional material such as the Child Ballads
‘Flodden Field’ and ‘The Twa Magicians
’ (the last of which Steeleye Span had recorded the year before) and the Irish songs ‘Let no man steal your Thyme’ and ‘Curragh of Kildare’. The album, despite a very short run of pressings, together with Hart’s involvement, helped increase the band’s profile sufficiently to gain attention from a major label.
, shortened their name to Spriguns and recruited a new band of Dick Powell (keyboards), Tom Ling (fiddle), and Chris Woodcock (drums), which gave them a fuller and rockier sound. The resulting album Revel, Weird & Wild (1976) was again produced by Tim Hart. It relied exclusively on material penned by the band, particularly by Mandy Morton, but many of these were reworkings of traditional material.
For the next album Time Will Pass (1977) only Powell and Ling were retained and Australians Wayne Morrison (guitar) and Dennis Dunstan (drums) were recruited. This was a relatively lavish attempt to break through into the mainstream, with orchestral arrangements undertaken by Robert Kirby
, who had worked with Nick Drake
and the Strawbs and production by Sandy Roberton, who had overseen Steeleye Span's early folk albums. The band now sounded very much like a conventional rock outfit with folk overtones and Mandy Morton was the only songwriter.
, who died during recording and as a result the content was similar in style to Denny’s solo work. It was recorded at Spaceward Studios, produced by Mike Kemp and benefited from guest appearances by several respected figures in the electric folk world, including a return for Tim Hart on dulcimer and backing vocals and guitar work from former Gryphon
instrumentalist Graeme Taylor
. This last album is generally considered the finest work the band produced.
in 1986. Dick Powell is the leader of Cambridge dance band The Melodybeats, and is writing songs and poetry and short stories as well as teaching. Tom Ling plays in Cambridge bands. Wayne Morrison and Dennis Dunstan are back home in Australia having fleetingly lived in California where Dennis worked for Fleetwood Mac for some time as Head of Security.
or Mellow Candle
in style, relying on long guitar solos, similar to those of some progressive rock bands. The material was often dark in nature, focusing on black magic, war and death, which prefigured the obsessions of some later dark wave bands. Their rare albums became particularly sought after by record collectors and began to be re-released as CDs from the 1990s.
Mandy Morton
Electric folk
Electric folk is the name given to the form of folk rock pioneered in England from the late 1960s, and most significant in the 1970s, which then was taken up and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man, to produce Celtic rock and its...
group formed in 1972. They managed to obtain a record deal with a major label and the attention of some most significant figures in the folk rock world. They produced four albums with growing originality and recognition, but were unable to attain mainstream success and disbanded in 1978. Their lead singer, Mandy Morton, continued her solo career in Scandinavia and the band have now obtained a cult following.
Origins
Mike and Mandy Morton formed Spriguns of Tolgus as an acoustic duo at their own folk club in Cambridge, England in 1972. They took the name Spriguns from a malignant Cornish pixiePixie
Pixies are mythical creatures of folklore, considered to be particularly concentrated in the areas around Devon and Cornwall, suggesting some Celtic origin for the belief and name.They are usually depicted with pointed ears, and often wearing a green outfit and pointed...
, and Tolgus from a tin mine in Cornwall. Initially the band relied on traditional songs, particularly ballads, from England, Scotland and Ireland and were similar in sound to Steeleye Span
Steeleye Span
Steeleye Span are an English folk-rock band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....
.
The Mortons were joined by Rick Thomas (fiddle) and Chris Russon (electric guitar), producing soft-focus electric folk on a self-financed tape recording Rowdy, Dowdy Day (1974). This drew them to the attention of Steeleye Span's Tim Hart
Tim Hart
Tim Hart was an English folk singer and multi-instrumentalist, best known as a founding member of electric folk band, Steeleye Span.-Early years:...
, who produced their first vinyl album Jack with a Feather (1975), contributing the song ‘Seamus the Showman’, beside traditional material such as the Child Ballads
Child Ballads
The Child Ballads are a collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, collected by Francis James Child in the late nineteenth century...
‘Flodden Field’ and ‘The Twa Magicians
The Twa Magicians
"The Twa Magicians" or "The Two Magicians" is a British folk song. It first appears in print in 1828 in two sources, Peter Buchan's Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland and John Wilson's Noctes Ambrosianae #40. It was later published as number 44 of Francis James Child's English and...
’ (the last of which Steeleye Span had recorded the year before) and the Irish songs ‘Let no man steal your Thyme’ and ‘Curragh of Kildare’. The album, despite a very short run of pressings, together with Hart’s involvement, helped increase the band’s profile sufficiently to gain attention from a major label.
The Decca albums 1976-7
In 1976 they signed with DeccaDecca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, shortened their name to Spriguns and recruited a new band of Dick Powell (keyboards), Tom Ling (fiddle), and Chris Woodcock (drums), which gave them a fuller and rockier sound. The resulting album Revel, Weird & Wild (1976) was again produced by Tim Hart. It relied exclusively on material penned by the band, particularly by Mandy Morton, but many of these were reworkings of traditional material.
For the next album Time Will Pass (1977) only Powell and Ling were retained and Australians Wayne Morrison (guitar) and Dennis Dunstan (drums) were recruited. This was a relatively lavish attempt to break through into the mainstream, with orchestral arrangements undertaken by Robert Kirby
Robert Kirby
Robert Kirby was a British born arranger of string sections for rock and folk music. He is best known for his work on the Nick Drake albums, Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter, but has also worked with Elton John, Ralph McTell, Strawbs, Paul Weller and Elvis Costello.-At Cambridge:Patrick...
, who had worked with Nick Drake
Nick Drake
Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician. Though he is best known for his sombre guitar based songs, Drake was also proficient at piano, clarinet and saxophone...
and the Strawbs and production by Sandy Roberton, who had overseen Steeleye Span's early folk albums. The band now sounded very much like a conventional rock outfit with folk overtones and Mandy Morton was the only songwriter.
Magic Lady
The Mortons left Decca in 1977 for reasons that remain unclear and established their own label, Banshee Records, in 1978. A new band was formed, retaining Tom Ling but adding Byron Giles (guitar) and Alex Cooper (drums). Mandy Morton became the group's focus and their last album under the name Spriguns was Magic Lady (1978), credited to ‘Mandy Morton and Spriguns’. The album’s title was a tribute to Sandy DennySandy Denny
Sandy Denny , born Alexandra Elene Maclean Denny, was an English singer and songwriter, perhaps best known as the lead singer for the folk rock band Fairport Convention...
, who died during recording and as a result the content was similar in style to Denny’s solo work. It was recorded at Spaceward Studios, produced by Mike Kemp and benefited from guest appearances by several respected figures in the electric folk world, including a return for Tim Hart on dulcimer and backing vocals and guitar work from former Gryphon
Gryphon (band)
Gryphon were a British progressive rock band of the 1970s, best known for their unusual Medieval sound and instrumentation.-Career:Multi-instrumentalist Richard Harvey and his fellow Royal College of Music graduate Brian Gulland, a woodwind player, began the group as an all-acoustic ensemble that...
instrumentalist Graeme Taylor
Graeme Taylor
Graeme Taylor is a British electric guitarist.Taylor played lead guitar with 1970s medieval/rock band Gryphon, and leading folk rock bands including the Albion Band and Home Service...
. This last album is generally considered the finest work the band produced.
After Spriguns
In 1979 Mandy Morton signed for Polydor Scandinavia in 1979, where she gained quite a following, gradually moving away from her folk roots and in the 1980s touring with a conventional rock band. She produced the album Sea Of Storms (1979) before Mike and Mandy split and Mike returned to Cambridge. After producing Valley Of Light for Banshee in 1983, Mandy returned to England to work for BBC Radio CambridgeshireBBC Radio Cambridgeshire
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire is the BBC Local Radio service for the English county of Cambridgeshire. It originally broadcast from studios on Hills Road close to the train station in Cambridge - which have now moved to a new multi-million pound centre at the Cambridge Business Park on Cowley Road - ...
in 1986. Dick Powell is the leader of Cambridge dance band The Melodybeats, and is writing songs and poetry and short stories as well as teaching. Tom Ling plays in Cambridge bands. Wayne Morrison and Dennis Dunstan are back home in Australia having fleetingly lived in California where Dennis worked for Fleetwood Mac for some time as Head of Security.
Style and significance
Mandy Morton’s song writing and fey laid-back singing was central to the sound of the band. Initially they seemed to be a clone of Steeleye Span, but the greater experimentation, production values and confidence of the later work, in which Mandy Morton began to produce her own material, is closer to bands like TreesTrees (band)
Trees was an American New Wave one-man band, fronted by Dane Conover, from San Diego, California. Trees only released one album on MCA Records, which was produced by Earle Mankey called Sleep Convention . It was a critical success but a commercial failure...
or Mellow Candle
Mellow Candle
Mellow Candle were a progressive folk rock band. Principally Irish, the members were also unusually young, Clodagh Simonds being only 15 and Alison Bools and Maria White 16, and still at school, at the time of their first single, "Feelin' High", released in 1968 on Simon Napier-Bell's SNB...
in style, relying on long guitar solos, similar to those of some progressive rock bands. The material was often dark in nature, focusing on black magic, war and death, which prefigured the obsessions of some later dark wave bands. Their rare albums became particularly sought after by record collectors and began to be re-released as CDs from the 1990s.
Band members
- BJ Cole (pedal steel)
- Alex Cooper (drums and percussion)
- Dennis Dunstan (drums)
- Byron Giles (electric and acoustic guitars, vocals)
- Thom Ling (electric and acoustic violins, harpsichord)
- Wayne Morrison (lead guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin and vocals)
- Mandy Morton (vocals, 12 string guitar, dulcimer, bongos)
- Mike Morton (bass guitar, vocals)
- Lea Nicholson (concertina)
- Dick Powell (electric guitar, keyboards, vocals)
- Chris Russon (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, 12 string guitar)
- Rick Thomas (vocals, acoustic guitar, mandolin, dulcimer)
- Chris Woodcock (drums)
Discography
Albums- Rowdy, Dowdy Day (Private pressing, 1974) (tape)
- Jack With A Feather (Alida Star, 1975)
- Revel, Weird & Wild (Decca, 1976)
- Time Will Pass (Decca, 1977)
- Magic Lady (Banshee, 1978)
Mandy Morton
- Sea of Storms (Polydor, 1979)
- Valley of Light (Banshee, 1983)