Wishbone Ash tonight

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33791, 13 March 1975, Page 4

Wishbone Ash tonight

Wishbone Ash. one of the top British groups at the moment, will he playing at English Park tonight. The group's records have beeen reviewed enthusiastically on this page, and Brian Timms gives his opinion of their latest disc below. The first album, “Wishbone Ash”, was released in December. 1970. and it featured all the favourites from the band’s earlier stage performances. .The second album, "Pilgrimage", was released in September, 1971. By the time the third album. "Argus” was in the record shops in May. 1972, the group had long since reached “top of the bill” status and "Argus” shot into the Top Ten of the L.P. charts within two

weeks and subsequently had the distinction of being voted No. 1 album of the year in both the “Melody Maker” and Sounds polls in the autumn. In the early months of 1973 Wishbone retreated to a remote cottage in Wales to work on a different type of album, featuring more vocals than before. This, their fourth L.P., aptly named “Wishbone Four” was released in May. During October, 1973, the band played a series of concerts in England which were recorded on stage and after extensive editing, the fine double album “Live Dates” was released in December. Then, in June 1974. Ted Turner, always the enigmatic member of Wishbone. decided to leave and work on his own musical ideas. In spite of the initial

shock of this departure, it quickly became apparent that new lead guitarist Laurie Wisefield (a refugee from the recently-split Home) would be much more than just a replacement for Ted. Andy Powell had spotted Laurie when he and the rest of Home were backing Al Stewart on his first American tour. Andy seized the opportunity to jam with the band on a couple of occasions. He and Laurie combined so well that Laurie was soon invited to join, Wishbone. Within days, the new line-up was writing and rehearsing in preparation for the trip to Miami to record the new album with top producer Bill Szymczyk. “There’s the Rub” inspired almost total critical approval and an immediate chart entry.