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The Hellfire Club |
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The Hellfire Club were formed way back in the spring of 1994 when Rab and Willie, after a spell eeking out an existence in the Canary Islands returned to Glasgow and decided to put together a rock band dedicated to
playing the country music standards they knew and loved. Enlisting the supreme drum talents of Robert Anderson, the first practice was held in Roberts room in the infamous Bank Street flat in the cities West End (practice space shared by such rock luminaries as Stevie Jackson, from Belle and Sebastian and Willie Campbell, from Astrid). The band quickly invited Mark Ferrari to join on bass and gathered a set of songs and sources that they continue to draw upon to this day. Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Gram Parsons, The Byrds, Willie Nelson, Steve Earle, Dwight Yokam, Country, Cajun and Bluegrass standards mixed in with some of the bands own material became the order of the day and in May '94 the band played there first gig, in what was to become a bi-weekly residency, in Wintersgills pub on Great Western Road. Further appearances at the Saturday afternoon open stage in The Halt and then headline gigs at the same venue and various gigs around the city enhanced the bands reputation for lively, if sometimes chaotic, live appearances. In June '96 Helen Sawle, another refugee from the Canary Islands moved up to Scotland from her beloved Liverpool and soon joined the band providing some much needed harmony and a visual prescence that up 'til that time was being provided by Marks shoes. A new era dawned for the band. The present band line-up was finalised after a wild night in the Halt Bar when Nick's wife Joe came up and aked if he could join the band on fiddle. Not wanting to say no to Joe, and having spent the best part of a year searching for a fiddle player who looked or even sounded like Clare McLaughlin, we agreed to give him a try-out. Needless to say the icorporation of fiddle alongside the recently added mandolin gave the band a rootsier sound and certainly encouraged a lot more dancing at Hellfire Club gigs than had gone before. A golden period of Hellfire Club gigs ensued, taking in the Halt, McChuills West and East, a couple of slots with the RadioSweethearts in 13th Note and gigs in Ireland and a successfull tour of Norway. Since the summer of 2000 the bands gigging has been put on hold while Helen and Willie and Nick (and Joe) took time out to make babies. In the last year the band have started rehearsing and writing again and played a series of gigs around the country. A couple of well received gigs at Dunoon Country and Western festival and a series of gigs including boat sheds in Cowal and cow sheds in Boatal (sorry Biggar) resulted from some of the band leaving Glasgow to move to more rural pastures. In the last couple of months the band have started to actively seek a return to gigging in Glasgow and to increase their appearances on the Country and Western circuit.
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