Wendy Saddington
Adelaide/ Melbourne/Sydney 1967 – present |
Personnel
|
Note: It is, of
course, difficult to accurately and thoroughly document the ever-changing band
line-ups for a maverick performer like Wendy.
We’re listing the major ones here, the veracity of which we’re
reasonably sure. The dates shown below
relate to her tenure with each band…
Kevin Peek [guitar]
Trevor Spencer [drums]
Wendy Saddington [vocals]
Alan Tarney [bass]
Ace Follington [drums]
Phil Manning [guitar, vocals]
Warren Morgan [piano, vocals]
Wendy Saddington [vocals]
Murray Wilkins [bass]
Harry Brus [bass]
Ross East [guitar, vocals]
Peter Figures [drums]
Barry Kelly [keyboards, vocals]
Wendy Saddington [co-lead vocals]
Jeff St John [lead vocals]
Biography
|
In my profile of Aussie blues stalwarts Chain on this site, I
refer to one of that band’s early members as having forged “an erratic but
compelling solo career”. I stand by
that statement, as I bravely try now to unravel for you, at least to a
serviceable extent, the enigma that remains Wendy Saddington.
It’s a crying shame that there is such scant recorded evidence of
Wendy’s talent, and in her case it often falls to apochryphal stories, or pure
hearsay, together with some fans’ treasured and hopefully lucid memories of
some absolutely magical concert performances, or some occasional abysmal
embarrassments. Remember, it was me who
used the words: erratic… compelling… enigma…
Wendy Saddington’s musical influences may or may not have included the
likes of Bessie Smith, Etta James, Mahalia Jackson, Odetta, Aretha Franklin,
Nina Simone, Janis Joplin, and the raw blues from the Mississippi delta, along
with the swanky soul coming from the American Stax, Atlantic and Motown
labels. There might even be some of the
vulnerability of, say, Edith Piaf to be detected in Wendy’s pleading, bleeding
vocal entreaties.
Saddington first came to notice in Melbourne psych-soul outfit The
Revolution, before swiftly joining Adelaide’s psychedelic/classically flavoured
James
Taylor Move around late 1967.
Virtually all the members of this band went on to bigger and better
things – Peek, Tarney and Spencer all moved to the UK, where Tarney and Spencer
had huge success as session players, writers and producers as well as forming
their own successful band. Peek likewise became an in-demand session player and
later linked up with another expat Aussie guitarist, renowned classical plucker
John Williams, and together they formed the enormously successful
classical-rock fusion band Sky. As with most of Saddington’s band
collaborations, she scarpered before any recording document was made.
Such was again the case when Wendy joined the emerging blues-rock
ensemble that she named (The) Chain, after the song by one of her heroines, Aretha
Franklin’s soul classic, Chain Of Fools. Wendy spent around 18 months touring with
Chain, and it was during this time that her fractured, earth-mother
Joplin/Franklin vocal hybrid came to prominent notice among promoters and
punters alike. Also, her outlandish
appearance attracted magazines like Go-Set: a sad waif-like face,
heavily mascara-ed around the eyes, framed by the hugest of afro “do’s” this
side of Jimi’s Experience! Wendy
favoured simple Levi’s, with a basic shirt or cheesecloth kaftan top and
copious love-beads and bangles.
Curiously, one of Wendy’s side-gigs around 1969 was to write a column
for the lovelorn in Go-Set. Just imagine how incongruous, but
delightful, that very concept seemed when wild Wendy first took on the mantle
of “agony-aunt”! (A bit like Fiona Horne doing the same thing
nowadays I suppose… No?) But remember,
back then when the mainstream press and most TV reporters witnessed such a
supposedly crazed witch (in their eyes) as Wendy Saddington, and reported her
activities with scorn and derision, you might understand that such unwarranted
but intense spotlight scrutiny always seemed to deflect Wendy back into her
complex shell. Meanwhile, Chain went on
to build a solid reputation as Australia’s premier blues-rock band, while for a
short time Wendy foundered, seemingly bewildered by all the attention her
unique talents were garnering. But she
pressed on…
Saddington’s next major project was with Jeff St John’s highly
acclaimed and already established group, Copperwine, and it’s here that we
finally have an officially-released recording of her sublime vocal
performances! Wendy joined the band in
March 1970, just after the release of Copperwine’s Joint Effort album, and
sang live as co-lead with St John for a concentrated touring regime through to
February 1971. In January of that year,
with St John temporarily absent from duty, Saddington appeared with Copperwine
at the outdoor Wallacia Rock Festival in central-coast New South Wales, to
considerable acclaim.
An album recording of the event was released on Festival’s progressive
offshoot Infinity during ’71, which showcased Copperwine’s sympathetic backing
sensibilities for Wendy’s distinctive soulful rasping squeal. On such cuts as the funky opener, Nina
Simone’s Backlash Blues, and her
heartfelt reading of Dylan’s Just Like
Tom Thumb’s Blues, Saddington continually astonishes with her sensual soul
power. A side curve is thrown by the
inclusion of her introspective and idiosyncratic, coo-ing reading – with
tightly-knowing support from the band – of John Lennon’s Tomorrow Never Knows (in her typically unhinged fashion, Wendy
introduces this song as a George Harrison composition!) The album brings forth other highlights of
Saddington & Copperwine’s incendiary Wallacia set: Five People Said I Was Crazy (which, with its wild Ross East guitar
solo, Barry Kelly’s determined electric piano flourishes and Wendy’s monumental
banshee wail, certainly lives up to its title). The closing tour-de-force Blues
In A completely satisfies the listener as a consummate combination of the
music of one of Australia’s premier all-purpose prog-blues bands of the time,
with definitely one of our most unique and mesmerising blues-soul vocalists.
News just to hand is that this album, remastered and with bonus tracks,
is scheduled for imminent release as part of Festival Record’s 50th
anniversary celebrations that include their prog subsidiary imprint, Infinity…
Copperwine’s label. I’ve had the privilege
of hearing an advance copy of the CD (I’m listening to it now as I type). It sounds superb; I’ll say no more…
Er, but… included on that advance review CD are both sides of a single
Saddington made with the aid of composers/producers Warren Morgan and Billy Thorpe.
With full Aztecs backing, Wendy wails
and beseeches through a 6+ minute minor-key lament, a lushly orchestrated epic
that eventually takes on Hey Jude
proportions in its scope and sumptuous production values. The song we’re referring to is Looking Through A Window, and coming
with the current cachet of Thorpie’s pulling power, together with the fact that
it was in itself a stupendous record, this should have been a major hit for
Wendy. A national #22 peak in September
1971 isn’t too bad though. Subsequent
vinyl re-issues, and indeed the forthcoming remastered CD version, of Wendy
Saddington & Copperwine Live, include the above-discussed
single. Saddington returned the favour
of Morgan & Thorpe’s patronage by co-writing with the latter, Mothers & Fathers, for the 1973
album Thumpin’ Pig and Puffin’ Billy (Downunda).
As erratic and unpredictable a figure as Wendy was, her next move would
have been considered highly in keeping with “the norm” had it been anyone
else. But this was Wendy
Saddington! Alongside fellow Oz Rock
luminaries Daryl Braithwaite and Broderick Smith, Wendy performed in in the
famous March ’73 Melbourne Myer Music Bowl staging of Pete Townshend’s rock
opera, Tommy, playing the role of the nurse to positive notices. She also appeared as a semi-regular guest on
the short-lived ABC-TV program Fusions, which was essentially a
weekly showcase vehicle for Sydney-based progressive band Tully.
Wendy continued performing sporadically until the late 70s, working with
various outfits such as the Blues Assembly, Shango, and later in the US, the
Jeff Crozier Band. This writer seems to
remember references to the odd (and it would have been) onstage collaboration
with another eccentric performer, Jeff
Duff, but this needs to be properly verified. Then, for a while, she
disappeared from view. This retreat may
have had a fair bit to do with her spiritual explorations, which captured her
interest in the early 70s.
But we’re glad to say that in more recent times, Wendy has made
sporadic outings, singing up a storm whenever she has. One recent notable gig was captured on tape and
this remarkable recording, One Night Jamm has recently been
released on CD and is available through the official Kevin Borich website. The
show features Wendy performing several numbers with the Kevin Borich Express, and also features guest vocals and blues harp
from Ross Wilson – amazingly, this was the first time Kev and
The Boss had ever played together!.
The band fires on all cylinders, and while time has inevitably left its
mark on her voice, it is a startling performance from go-to-whoa from Wendy, a
testament to her enduringly exhilarating vocal skills. Now based in Melbourne, Saddington has
lately been performing low-key dates backed by an outfit known as Aniseed.
While Saddington is frustratingly under-recorded, and too seldom seen
in a live setting, the evidence we do have is that of a singular talent who
tenaciously plows her own furrow. The
re-mastered live album will certainly be eagerly awaited by all Wendy
Saddington fans lurking in their patchouli-scented reveries!
~Paul Culnane. January 2001.
Discography
|
Looking Through A Window / We Need A Song [Festival/Infinity; Sep 1971]
References
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· Paul Culnane – personal archives and reminisces
· Peter Maloney – background info, gossip, advice and access to rare recordings
· Ian McFarlane – Encyclodedia of Australian Rock & Pop, 1999, pp. 543-544
…as ever, thanx folx!
© 2001. ICE
Productions/MILESAGO. All rights
reserved.