Zydecomotion

At the end of the last century (1999) five guys on a zydeco mission set up a very makeshift “studio” in a shed full of broken farm tools, old motorbike parts, shotguns, nervous chickens and hostile geese.
Chris Hall had a handful of songs that he’d written in one night of whisky fuelled creativity. He’d recorded them on an old cassette recorder and the plan was made to record these as a band in the shed in a weekend. The accordion was put through a busted up old valve amp and cranked up to 11 , guitar drums and bass dived in, and Bryn “Mad Dog” Davies sang a bunch of songs that became “Shed Music”!
It was all guesswork. No studio, no engineer. Everything plugged into an old vintage mixer covered in dust. No time to check it all out. 1234 go. Shall we listen back? No time for that. Next song 1234 go. Fortunately everything worked out better than they could have hoped and the turbo charged accordion sound and Mad Dogs screaming vocals and the soaring guitar against a rock solid backline, gained them headline appearances at festivals all over Europe.
Audiences described them as a cross between Beau Jocque, John Lee Hooker and The Pogues. Zydeco blues with a punk energy. It was a volatile mix fronted by a madman singing his heart out and playing his scrubboard with knives amongst a sea of sparks. Light the blue touch paper, let the dog off the lead and stand well back. They played folk festivals, blues festivals, and rock festivals in the UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, and Ireland and they were often invited straight back. Trowbridge Festival had a policy of never booking the same band two years in a row. The policy was broken for zydecomotion who went back three years in a row to play to a capacity crowd in the dance tent. They even played festivals in the USA when word spread that there was a zydeco band with a new sound making waves over the pond.
Needless to say the flame burned bright and burnt itself out, and The Dog went back to the dog pound… …until a phone call from Gloucester Festival in 2023: “We are thinking of asking some bands from the past to reform in celebration of 30 years of our festival, is the dog keen to be let off the leash again at Gloucester 2024?” Chris got on the dog and bone to the dog house. Bryn was up for it. Bryn drafted in his son on guitar duties, Chris called his mate Horace Panter (bass player with The Specials), seasoned zydeco drum master Andy Watson agreed to get on board, and the band went back into the shed and got down to work.
So the band headlined Gloucester Festival on Sunday night and guess what? The reception was mighty. The groove was still there and the question had to be asked. Is that it or will we do it again? Well it seems the answer was a resounding yes please from all the band members. Come see and find out what that Zydecomotion is all about!”