Following the break up of Albion Parade, Kit Hamdy withdrew to a farm on the Welsh borders to recharge his creative batteries. Intrigued by the carefree lifestyle of the itinerant poachers and diesel thieves he saw plying their trade in the hills around the farm, Hamdy formulated the idea of a travelling band in the old troubadour tradition.
Encouraged by his wife Bethany and guided by her tasseographical practice*, he formed Hamdy’s News, a loose collective of like-minded musicians and performers who would travel the countryside, setting up and playing wherever and whenever the mood took them.
Having thrown off the shackles of the dictatorial Vic Briggs (who Hamdy later described as ‘Adolf Eichman in a knitted waistcoat’) he was able to get back to his rock and blues roots and Hamdy’s News became the forerunners of what would eventually be known as ‘neckerchief rock’.
Amid a constantly shifting tide of guest musicians and hangers-on, the core of the band remained the same. Along with Hamdy on guitar and vocal, the line-up consisted of 13-year-old mandolin prodigy Pip Willis; Rob Clegg on bass; classically trained pianist Tim Merlin-Ruddy on keys and Dave Toad, former drummer of Kent folk reactionaries Spadeoak.
In 1975 manager Tony Slutt-Lewis invested most of Hamdy’s money in a huge big-top tent, brought from one of Slutt-Lewis’ own failed ventures; a circus that had been shut down on the grounds of animal cruelty.
The tour began well, with the first night going down in the annals of rock history as one of those legendary ‘you had to have been there’ moments. Sadly, it became immediately apparent that the erecting and dismantling of the big-top was so labour intensive and time-consuming that it left little time for the band to actually play.
With Hamdy losing faith in the project, the band soon fell apart and the members went their separate ways. Rob Clegg and Dave Toad became an in-demand rhythm section, lending their groove to a variety of important artists, most notably Conway and bar-room rockers Wet Whistle.
Pip Willis returned to school and, though history does not record what became of Tim Merlin-Ruddy, it’s widely believed that he does something in the leisure industry. Disillusioned with the business, Kit Hamdy procured a narrow-boat, the 90-foot Mary-Anne-Jenny-Louise, and took to a life on the water.
After several years away from music he began to host a series of informal ‘on-board’ sessions with various musicians from the narrow-boat community. It was during one of these sessions that tragedy struck on the night of July 9th 1978. It’s thought that a stray spark from a rapidly strummed mandolin started the fire that soon ripped through the heavily varnished and gloss painted Mary-Anne-Jenny-Louise.
After Hamdy’s funeral, the great and the good of the folk and rock world put together a tribute album, ‘Neckerchief On The Water,’ to raise funds for his widow. Notably absent from both these events was Hamdy’s former band-mate Vic Briggs…
Sweet gypsy princess with your head in the clouds
The hour of sweet love we are nearing
Put your tarot cards down, let us lay on the ground
By the light of your big silver earring
(chorus)
Lay with me a while
On fence, on gate, on stile
Oh lay with me a while
You sun-kissed moonlight child
Yes lay with me a while
With grimace or with smile
On my ol’ tarpaulin, on the dewy ground.
from ‘My Ol’ Tarpaulin’, Hamdy’s News
* Tea-leaf reading would inform many of Hamdy’s decisions. Bethany eventually left him after one such consultation with the leaves and Hamdy never drank tea again.
Albion Parade 