WHAT WOULD THE NORTH WEST DO without the Rainy City?
Where would we be? There are other bands in our area and all are at least
good, but the Rainy City guys have that something else - a willingness to
play anywhere, almost anytime, with the prime object of having fun and helping
out. Playing at Church and Charity Functions.
The Cover
Photo
Trevor Jones, Bill Degney, Brian Waterhouse and
Tom Degney
And so it was at Bryn Williams’
Millstone Weekend The band did
its’ duty as always and did it very well. They played in the Concert
as well as in the various jam sessions and led many of them, outside in the
courtyard in the
sunshine.
The band is usually thought of as a quintet, comprising
(left to right on the cover photo) Trevor Jones (bass, lead vocals), Bill
Degney (guitar, lead/harmony vocals), Brian Waterhouse (guitar, lead/harmony
vocals) and Tom Degney (banjo, guitar, mandolin, dobro, fiddle, lead/harmony
vocals). Missing from the photo, and from any RCBB activities for many months,
is fiddle player Roisin
Browne.
The strongest points of the Rainy City are the
instrumental versatility of Tom Degney and the range of music they play.
They are equally happy playing trad-grass, instrumentals (both regular and
self-composed), things somewhat on the country-side, swingy stuff, music
hall and humorous, even comedy, numbers. One of these, The Blue Ridge Mountains
of Virginia, might start off in some totally unexpected way, such as a camped-up
version of Duelling Banjos, but eventually the main song arrives. A big surprise
(for the uninitiated!) comes when Bill and Tom break into a song and dance
routine - it never fails to crack me up, anyhow! Tom’s instrumentals
include mandolin piece The Road To Dent - the tab and story behind this appeared
in NWBN June 1996. It is a ‘tone poem’; anyone wanting a copy of
the tab, etc., please send me a stamped, addressed envelope. Tom is amazing
- not only does he play all 6 of the instruments, he also makes them, but
not a fiddle. Well, not so far....
Jam session at the Millstone. Who can you spot?
Another venture that the band never misses a crack
at is the Edale Folk Train. They have done a few of these, most recently
in August this year. One of their exploits was written up in this mag
“Ridin’ The Edale
Train”.
The photo on the front cover was taken when the
RCBB played at Chester Folk Club on Tuesday 16th June, standing in at very
short notice for Arthur Robinson, who had been taken ill. Well, it that
isn’t exactly the photo that was taken. I’ve given up trying to
get a good photo all in one shot - Bluegrass Bands are definitely not
camera-trained! So someone on the original photo has had a slight computerised
surgical operation - can you spot who, and what it
was?
Anyhow, they attracted an international audience
- our daughter Pam had flown in from San Francisco only that morning to see
them, and such was the performance that they managed to keep her awake! There
was a good audience for this, the Chester Club’s last Showcase before
the summer break. And they were not disappointed as the band put them through
the full gamut of The Rainy City Musical Experience, playing for a pittance
- thanks lads! When we’re rich we’ll buy you new
strings...
See Rainy City Club at Prestwich |
Gig Report |
Derek Brandon, Chester
Updated 23rd Jan 1999
|