A R T I C L E S
a n d I N T E R V I E W S
Pilgrimage album review - Melody Maker, 2 October 1971 by Roy Hollingworth
Well, as you may have guessed, a lot of us have fallen in love with this little band, and there are a load of reasons you can hear right here on this excellent album. Things couldn’t really be going better for Wishbone, it’s one of those things they call purple patches, and this is a purple patch album. So I’m going to tell you now to expect things as gutsy as a Liverpudlian whore, and just as randy - and right next to them lie dainty little tunes so darned nice you wonder how the same band can fit so cosily in both niches.
“Vas Dis” slits open Side One, a Jack McDuff racer done so cleanly and confidently with smooth scat vocals and fistfuls of guitar flavour. Then, “The Pilgrim” soft at first and then creeping into a gurgling complex item of the heavier side o’rock - the Andy Powell, Ted Turner guitar combination at its startling best. Next comes downright blues and rock rock-rock in “Jail Bait”, one express of an item, biting on top of Martin Turner’s bumping bass line. “Alone” is a little piece of colourful playing that calms the listener down for the opening track on Side Two, “Lullaby”, a Peter Green-ish item of mellow guitar weavings laid over a beautiful warm melody. This is so well recorded that each note contributes its own bud of colour. It’s pretty much the same on “Valediction”, another musical item from the softer side of Wishbone. On June 14 this year Wishbone played a date at Leicester De Montfort Hall and their blazing “Where Were You Tomorrow” was taped during the set. Very live, very live indeed, and even the audience clap in time during the quiet guitar repartee between Powell and Turner.