Ashley Stephen Hutchings (born 26 January 1945), MBE, sometimes known in early years as "Tyger" Hutchings, is an English bassist, songwriter, arranger, band leader, writer and record producer. He was a founding member of several English folk-rock bands: Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Albion Band and Etchingham Steam Band. Hutchings has overseen numerous other projects, including records and live theatre, and has collaborated on film and television projects.
Links to Peel[]
Peel played many of the English folk rock bands that Ashley Hutchings co-founded on his radio programmes, in particular Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, both of them regular session guests in the Top Gear years. Additionally, in the 1970s the DJ featured tracks from the albums Morris On, Son Of Morris On and The Compleat Dancing Master, which involved other well-known folk musicians but were basically Hutchings' projects. For a time he was married to the singer Shirley Collins and produced her No Roses album, also liked by Peel.
Hutchings praised Peel for helping Fairport Convention in their music career:
“When we started in ’67, we were kind of copying the Americans. It’s a wonder we had the success we did. But John Peel got behind us, and a lot of other people, and then by the second album – third album, certainly – we were starting to get folkier. It certainly wasn’t a question of ‘Sandy Denny joined the band and suddenly we were folky’, or even [the recently departed] Dave Swarbrick." [1]
Having kept diaries and a collection of tapes of his BBC sessions, Ashley Hutchings was able to contribute to Ken Garner's In Session Tonight and The Peel Sessions. In the notes to Heyday, the reissue album of Fairport's 1968-69 BBC recordings for Peel and others, described his experience of doing sessions at Maida Vale and other BBC studios:
The now legendary producer Bernie Andrews ran the best sessions. He became a personal friend to the band, as did his cohort, John Peel....The places where these sessions were recorded made their own special contribution to their experience.....in those days radio sessions were recorded in massive old spaces, dripping with history....The daddy of them all was Maida Vale...
He also mentions that his final session with Fairport, "which featured the radical change of style to traditional folk-rock", was "produced by the other legendary figure, John Walters. Don't start me off on Walters stories though or I'll never stop....."
However, after the 1970s, Peel didn't seem to play any of Ashley Hutchings' records issued under his own name on his radio shows. Hutchings was interviewed and a track ('Princess Royal') from him in co-operation with other artists was played on the 1999 radio documentary, As I Roved Out: A Century Of Folk Music, which was narrated by Peel. Hutchings himself also hosted some folk radio shows for the BBC in later decades[2].
Sessions[]
- None under his own name.
- Eight with Fairport Convention (1967-69), three with Steeleye Span (1970-71), six with the Albion Country Band (1972-1978) and one with the Etchingham Steam Band (1974).
Shows Played[]
- 31 July 1978: 'La Russe (Medley) (LP-Kicking Up The Sawdust)' (Harvest)
- 04 August 1978: 'Danish Double Quadrille/Old Comrades March (LP-Kicking Up The Sawdust)' (Harvest)
- 10 August 1978: Hornpipes (medley) (LP – Kickin’ Up The Sawdust) Harvest
- 15 August 1978: 'La Russe (Medley)' (LP-Kicking Up The Sawdust) (BGO)
- 16 August 1978: Double Quadrille (album - Kickin' Up The Sawdust) Harvest
- 17 August 1978: Waves Of Tory (LP – Kickin' Up The Sawdust) Harvest
- 18 August 1978: Dorset Four-Hand Reel (LP – Kickin’ Up The Sawdust) Harvest
- 28 August 1978: La Russe (album - Kickin’ Up The Sawdust) Harvest
- 12 September 1978: Hornpipes (medley) (LP – Kickin’ Up The Sawdust) Harvest (JP: “And the sleevenote features dance instructions that read like a wife-swapping party in hell. But you can try them if you like.”)
- 1979
- 06 November 1979: La Russe (LP - Kickin' Up Sawdust) Harvest