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ll managed perfectly well tance to it. But we were all still in touch and suddenly the old routine was back. And
thank you very much without and we’d never fallen out. The only rows it was incredible how everything seemed to
the 16-legged monster that we had, came through tiredness, through fall into place at that first rehearsal.”
was Edward II and none of being on the road so much when we’d
They all remembered the big tunes, but
them imagined they’d ever bicker about trivial things. That was anoth-
after a decade away, there was a freshness,
attempt to put it back together again. Yet er reason for splitting when we did – we
too, as they introduced the additional
they freely admit they missed it. were mates and wanted to stay that way.”
flavours and influences they’d acquired
“You don’t remember the bad bits, do He felt duty bound, however, to lodge from playing other music in their years
you?” says Simon. the suggestion of a reunion with the others apart. Dave Henry, Alton Zebby’s replace-
“We went round the world and given
and they persevered to overcome the awk- ment on the drums, has also given them a
the choice now I’d probably choose to see
ward logistics involved in collecting eight different dimension. “It does feel different,”
the world with the woman I love rather
people spread around the country around a says John Hart. “Alton is much more of a
than stuck in a van with a load of blokes,
table together, and they eventually groove player while Dave is more of a strict
but that said I wouldn’t change any of it,”
arranged a meeting in the glamorous sur- time merchant and with reggae that sort of
says Hart. “And to be making a living
roundings of Knutsford Service Station to change makes a big impact. But everyone
touring the world as a musician, that’s
discuss it. To everyone’s shock Gavin Sharp who has ever come into the band has
something we’d all dreamt of doing.
turned up with a business plan (“That’s brought something different with them.”
Sometimes it can feel a long way from
when we realised we’d grown up – nobody
being successful when you’re a bar band
had ever had a business plan before”) and
playing three one-hour sets on a Monday
once the idea of a one-year-only project
night but if somebody had said to me ‘This
took form and the old banter started flow-
guy you were at college with is going to
ing, it was clear they were all up for it.
T
he early comeback gigs, includ-
ing Celtic Connections festival
and a splendid evening at Lon-
don’s Cargo (where they were
supported by Mawkin:Causley),
ask you to join a band and you’ll make “The brief,” says Care, “was to have
have established a positive stream of
five albums and tour the world and head- fun, because there were times before
energy which they’re all tapping into. First
line all the major folk festivals’ that would when it was just a job.”
time round they were innovative trailblaz-
have been like a dream.”
Jon Moore: “What the band did on a ers heralding an exciting new multicultur-
People occasionally wandered up to good night was create something special al era and perhaps the oddest thing about
Simon Care at festivals and asked if there that was part-theatre, part-music, part- the time they’ve been absent is that
was any chance of an Edward II reunion and reaching the audience, part-general mad- nobody has seriously tried to do anything
Simon would shrug and say he doubted it. ness, with an element of spontaneity, and similar. There have been big bands merg-
And the reunion wouldn’t have happened that’s what drew us back to it. One of the ing different cultural styles – notably Afro
at all if Richard Haswell, manager of the De things we’ve been reaching for since the Celts – but the EII template remains their
Montfort Hall in Leicester, where they’d first rehearsal was getting back to that sole domain. It’s why they can boast with
played their last hurrah in 1999, hadn’t point where we pick up on an idea and it confidence that they are the “best folk-
called John Hart to remind him of the tenth goes somewhere else. That’s what makes reggae band ever”, because they are the
anniversary of that night and say he it such fun.” only folk-reggae band ever.
planned to mark it by booking them in for a
All were amazed how easily they “People have messed with it,” says
return visit.
slipped back into it. Care: “I turned up in Hart. “Sinead O’Connor did some Irish
“I wasn’t initially interested,” says Derby to pick up John to take him to the music with reggae and there’s a whole
Hart. “I’m not nostalgic and nor are the first rehearsal and he got in the car and said crusty dance scene in which reggae is
others, so there was quite a bit of resis- ‘This is weird, it feels like only yesterday’ entrenched, but nobody has done what
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