MORE ST ANDREW & THE WOOLLEN MILL

Bringing May's mega music mix to a halt, I'm gonna let St Andrew & The Woollen Mill continue with the comedy and have them play the month out with a bit of a chuckle.
This is another couple of tracks taken from the same source as yesterdays but shows a different side to the act, because along with the self penned material in the set, St Andrew also performed well known tunes...but with a humorous twist of course!
So once again the examples here were both recorded live - first one is a rendition of Fleetwood Mac's "Albatross", and the second one, the tune from "Close Encounters", dropping Vangelis's "Chariots Of Fire" into the fray!
I've seen them do this back in the early 80's and it's now interesting to observe that this comedy routine predates Bill Bailey by quite a few years.

Thanx to Jim.

ST ANDREW & THE WOOLLEN MILL - LIVE

Around about 1985ish, St Andrew & The Woollen Mill brought out a cassette that chronicled the history of the band. Done in the style of a mock documentary, it had interviews, fly-on-the-wall behind the scenes shenanigans, studio recordings and live recordings. It was put together really well, lasts an hour, and of course being comedy material, is funny all the way through. It's also loaded with references from the early 80's Dundee music scene, as well as mentioning quite a few well known places around town.
To give you a flavour of the content, here below is a recording capturing some of the fun of their live performances.
As a wee reminder, and to help put you in the picture, the mince roll caravan was up the Hulltoon.
The rest should be self explanatory.

Big thanks to Jim.

ST ANDREW & THE WOOLLEN MILL - 80'S

Formed in 1979, Saint Andrew & The Woollen Mill were regulars on the Dundee music scene by the time these 3 articles were written about them in the early 80's.

They stood out from your average local band because they specialised in humour, with plenty of well known tunes getting the comedy mash-up treatment in their set, along with their own quirky material.

You may get an idea of their silliness from the list of influences they mention - Kenny Everett, Dolly Parton, Patrick Wayne, Rolf Harris...etc.

I remember them doing their version of "Close Encounters" at the Tayside Bar and The Bothy - one of those hand held Casio mini keyboards was used for the famous UFO encounter tune bit, I think it then burst into a kind of disco groove!

They also had a few songs in oor oary local lingo.

The line-up in 1981 was - Andy "St Andrew" Pelc, vocal - Stewart Ivins, guitar - Eddie (Chris?) Marra, keyboard - Gus Foy, bass and Glen Jones, drums.

The band have released quite a few records over the years and I'm fairly sure St Andrew still performs from time to time.

So, the 2 items above...

Top, is an interview in Deadbeat, which the band did just before their gig at the Tayside Bar on 22nd December 1982 - and also includes a short review of the show.

Below it is a brief, light hearted introduction to the band taken from a 1981 Cranked Up.

Click them to bring up the large versions.