england

© Sue Arber.  supplied via Phil Gill.

England – Hastings Pier 1978. Four pictures of prog rock band England on Hastings Pier in 1978, during Phil Gill time as bass player. Courtesy of rock photographer Sue Arber,who kindly sent them to Phil. 

Martyn Baker… Can’t find ANYTHING at all about them online.

Alan Esdaile… That’s the trouble Martyn Baker with the name England. I have a previous posting which I will find. Here is some from you tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7sTsR1uvKE

Roy Penfold..  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_%28band%29

Martyn Baker… Thanks Alan and thanks Roy. I was doubting my memory that they actually existed!

Yvonne Cleland… Like the album name.

Dave Nattress… Wow – nice one and especially for Phil Gill. I went to the gig and was disappointed because (if I’m right) they played nothing off Garden Shed. Presumably some of the tracks they played – but no way can I remember any, would have gone on to “Last of the Jubblies”. Maybe Phil can recall or even has a set-list? Martyn, there are actually quite a lot of hits on England (this band), on the web. Try Garden Shed Music.

Phil Gill… The majority of England’s set during my tenure was songs from The Last of the Jubblies and new songs which I don’t believe were ever recorded. We rehearsed Midnight Madness from Garden Shed, but I don’t recall playing it live. I actually learned all of Garden Shed for my audition the previous year and would have loved to play it live but, to be fair, the other three had spent the previous 18 months writing and recording the album and were desperate to move on and work on new material. What’s your take on where they were headed during your post-Garden Shed tenure Geoff Peckham? Did you ever play it with them?

Geoff Peckham… I was a bit mystified as to their musical direction when I joined. I thought “Garden Shed” was fabulous but I didn’t play any of that with them. In fact we played nothing for a while, until we started rehearsing then recording the stuff that eventually surfaced on “The Last of The Jubblies”. This was very different from “Garden Shed”, more ‘organic’ I thought. It appeared to be developing but nothing seemed to move whilst I was around.

Phil Gill… Wow, exactly 39 years ago today!

Iain Cobby… Garden Shed ; must be one of the best prog albums of all time. Didn’t we swap Marshall cabs at that time Phil? I do remember the gig on the Pier and like Dave (we must have gone together as we were part of Damaris at that time) fell disappointed that there was nothing from that album. I do remember the mellotron looked as if it was stripped down, all the tapes exposed and that the PA was pants and did the guys no favors. but hey………… you lucky bassists to have been part of that history.