I've seen The Wurzels play live.
Now maybe that doesn't have the same cachet as saying I've been to a Stones gig or I was at Live Aid when the late great Freddie Mercury stole the show - but as crowd pleasers go, The Wurzels are hard to beat.
The band had a Number 1 and played Top of the Pops in the 1970s with their song featuring the immortal chorus line: I've got a Brand New Combine Harvester and I'll give you the key.
"Things went quiet in the 1980s and 90s," says the band's Tommy Banner, "then at the turn of the century something happened and we became a cult band, playing the agricultural colleges, and the national YFC conventions at Blackpool and Torquay."
There are a couple of opportunities to see the band coming up. They'll be at Glastonbury this year and also at a Nesscliffe Young Farmers Club event in Shropshire on June 30.
Tickets for the YFC gig can be got from Cheryl Jagger 07837 006865. Tickets for Glastonbury might, I fear, be slightly harder to get hold of...
Hi Tim,
At the weekend I wrote a post about favourite farming songs and The Combine Harvester Song was my favourite. We had it played as the second song at out wedding and I put my wellies on and danced around with a cardboard cut out combine harvester. The second dance was talked about for a long time! You can't beat the Wurzels!
Sara from farmingfriends
My name's Adam and I'm a Wurzels fan.
Really.
I've got everything they did that was released on CD (or as an iTunes download).
I am saddened to say that John Howe, bass player with the Wurzels and a close friend of my folks, died yesterday of an inoperable brain tumour.
That is the "illness" that stopped him playing with the group in 2007. The rest of the Wurzels were in the house yesterday when we called in to see his wife and daughter. They had seen him and played at the house often during the illness. Most of his senses had gradually gone, but not his memory of the tunes, or his playing of the guitar.
Ive only got 8 weeks left to go, before my second baby girl arrives. When will my nesting instincts kick in.