TUNING IN WITH BRIAN WILLOUGHBY
Interview by Lindsay Sorrell, Feb 2006

Amidst the hustle and bustle of Waterloo Station concourse, under the enormous clock at midday to be precise, I had the pleasure of meeting Brian Willoughby on 16th February, 2006. No carnations were required for recognition purposes (by me at least), as Brian was just as instantly recognisable with his smiling, Irish eyes as the last time I saw him, which was on tour with Cathryn Craig (well I did actually bump into him very briefly at a recent High Society gig and he had smiling, Irish eyes then too, nothing to do with the empty Guinness glass in his hand, to be sure). I was smugly congratulating myself that highly organised preparations had paid off handsomely as we both arrived at our destination within seconds of each other; however, I rapidly discovered that my own meticulous planning, which had involved taking a pen with me to scribble down notes, this being an interview, had fallen apart as my pen had been left on the kitchen table! I intended to nip into W. H. Smith's and grab a biro but Brian came to my rescue by lending me his precious, inscribed, rosewood "Fender" pen. Together with a beautiful "Custom Shop" Stratocaster, used extensively on "Fingers Crossed", his solo album of delicious instrumentals released in 2004, the pen had apparently been given in return for an article on alternative tunings which Brian wrote for Fender's "Frontline Player's Guide" magazine in 2000. I thanked Brian, who was looking extremely hale and hearty, and together we ventured across the road to a very pleasant café-bar which lived up to its name, "Azzurro", with walls adorned by numerous attractive pieces of blue artwork. As we relaxed into our comfortable surroundings I told Brian I, along with many others, was intrigued to know what he had been up to of late; he obligingly enlightened me in his usual friendly manner as we spent the afternoon chatting about a great many subjects.

Brian began by describing to me a new hard-disc recorder he has recently purchased which makes recording infinitely more simple than previously; good news indeed as he told me he has been spending a great deal of time recording, following a period of prolific writing of late. Apparently this new piece of technology is so small and convenient it can easily be transported, and Brian intends to use it to make live recordings on his forthcoming tour with Cathryn Craig. Within their songwriting partnership, Brian told me, he normally records various instrumental pieces which Cathryn then sifts through, picking and choosing whichever parts she feels she would like to add lyrics to, and thus their songs are generally created (although for the title track of Brian's "Black and White" album, a great song in my opinion, Cathryn apparently wrote the lyrics prior to Brian supplying the music). If Cathryn considers a guitar piece too difficult for her to do it true justice, yet believes it may represent good song material, Brian generally then passes the piece on to Michael Snow, a wonderful musician and gifted lyricist in Brian's opinion. Incidentally, it was a chance meeting in Nashville with Michael in 1993, following a tour of US folk clubs with Dave Cousins, that lead originally to Brian's partnership with Cathryn. Brian had been visiting an old friend from England while in Nashville, met Michael along the way, and at his suggestion Cathryn supplied vocals as a demo singer on a song Brian was working on. So impressed was Brian with Cathryn's vocal talents that he subsequently invited her to England to help with his recording of "Black & White", and so the Willoughby Craig partnership was born.

Chatting with Brian generates enormous energy; no sooner had we discussed one project with which he is involved than he was telling me about another, always with a zestful enthusiasm so wonderful to encounter. No jaded muso here! One project of many to be discussed during the afternoon was a recording Brian is currently involved in with the aforementioned Michael, who shared writing credits with Brian on several tracks from "Fingers Crossed". I confessed I knew very little about Michael Snow apart from having seen his name on Brian and Cathryn's albums, and was intrigued to hear that although he hails from Liverpool he now lives in Nashville and, while frequently known for writing the 1970's hit single "Rosetta", Michael has, during an illustrious career, worked with an enormous diversity of musicians including Doris Troy, Colin Blunstone and Dennis Locorriere. Apparently the song he and Brian are currently working on, "Amsterdam", has something of a reggae feel to it. Michael Snow's ears must have been burning as Brian proceeded to answer a call from him on his mobile phone, following which his enthusiasm for their current recording again began to bubble. I ought to mention that over our first cappuccinos of the day Brian told me that too much coffee can make him slightly hyper; to be on the safe side therefore we stuck to alcoholic beverages after that. We chatted further about "Fingers Crossed" and Brian told me what a great pleasure it had been to work with his old pal Dave Williams while recording the instrumentals on that album. (Dave Williams wrote and produced the single "Driftwood" in the early 1980s, by the band of the same name, with a line-up familiar to Strawbs' fans: Cronk, Fernandez, Richards and Willoughby).

A diversity of musical projects, past, present and future were discussed throughout the afternoon and my memory soon reached full capacity, though among many other interesting pieces of information I recall Brian telling me his greatest recording moment, at Jack's Tracks in Nashville, where he played lead to Skunk Baxter's rhythm. While speaking of current projects, Brian mentioned demos he and Cathryn have recently recorded with Hud and Terry Cassidy; Brian then surprised me somewhat by saying that, in his opinion, though Hud has spent the majority of his career as an absolutely superb drummer, his natural feel for guitar playing is quite outstanding. John Ford, too, he considers an excellent guitarist. In fact, Brian is exceptionally generous with his praise for other musicians, including his former companions within Strawbs, and we moved on to discuss his twenty-six years with the band and the fact that over the years he has worked with the vast majority of its members. Another Strawb for whom Brian told me he has great admiration, and whom I unfortunately encountered only fleetingly, was keyboard player Don Airey; Brian considers Don to be an exceptionally talented musician. (I feel I ought to point out here on Brian's behalf (he'd never do it himself – far too modest for that!) that he has himself recently been on the receiving end of recognition for his own musical talents; only this month he was the subject of an article in "Guitar Player" magazine).

I asked Brian about his early encounters with Strawbs and received a comprehensive reply: he told me how he started going to The White Bear, in Hounslow, on Thursday nights when he was about 15. He'd get his homework done, call on his friend Tom Kelt, and they'd go and get front seats to watch The Strawberry Hill Boys - Dave Cousins, Tony Hooper and Ron Chesterman. Brian played electric guitar at that time and when he saw Dave, Tony and their various guests playing steel-strung acoustics, Brian sold his electric, went unplugged, and didn't resume playing electric guitar until his early twenties. During that period he recalled giving Dave Cousins a tape of instrumentals which he had recorded in his parents' front room; he will be eternally grateful to Dave for passing that tape on to Mary Hopkin when she was seeking a guitarist a few years later, resulting in Brian auditioning for her on his twenty-second birthday. Brian is absolutely delighted that a recording of a gig which, he declared, remains the most memorable of his career, with Mary at the Royal Festival Hall in 1972, has very recently been released on cd to much acclaim. While reminiscing, Brian also recalled earlier times, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when he played in folk clubs along with Ron Chesterman and Maureen Kennedy-Martin. (He told me that Ron, who now lives in Chester (yes, honestly), is unfortunately unwell at present and that he very much hopes to get the opportunity to visit him.)

During his late teens Brian had run his own folk club at The Crown & Sceptre pub in Feltham, and booked The Strawberry Hill Boys, having previously been impressed by what he had seen. Dave Lambert came along that night and the rest is now well-documented history; he and Brian met through their mutual friend Dick Dufall, the bass player with Fire (completist information here - apparently early-teenage Dave L. and Brian had the same bicycle milk-round in Hounslow; Brian used to do his stint before Dave L. as he attended a school which was further away, then Dave L. would turn up and jump on the shared bike, the saddle having been duly warmed by Brian!).

Discussion of Brian's rather better-known partnership with Dave Lambert continued, and I like to think I grasped Brian's valiant attempt to explain to me how the fact that both he and Dave Lambert are numerate individuals had aided their understanding of the mathematics of Dave Cousins' music, creating Acoustic Strawbs' distinctive sounds as they were instinctively in harmony with one another.

Having spent many years as a dedicated guitarist within Strawbs and other bands, however, Brian decided in 2003 that the time had come for him to strike out on his own more; he had reached a stage in his career when he realised it was his own material he wanted to be playing to audiences. He was delighted to see his long-time mate and Strawb from former incarnations, Chas Cronk, drafted in as the third acoustic Strawb at his suggestion, not as his replacement as the sound Strawbs set out to achieve altered considerably, but rather adding an entirely different dimension to the previous acoustic sound. Brian and Chas have played together with numerous line-ups over the years, not only within Strawbs, but also with other bands including the Steve Whalley Band, Willy Finlayson and The Hurters. Chas was also the mastering engineer on "Fingers Crossed" – I gave up on my scribbling at that point!