Well here I am mid-month just trying to finish it out and get to next month. Which means technically I will be writing Christmas posts in August. So here we are then with this which for $4.8 was at a hefty price tag. You would have thought I would have bought it for the accordion on the front, but you would be wrong. Much like the Washington Squares album, I bought it for the female drummer. I was hoping for some Rezillos style female vocals. Also, this album is autographed.
From what I can hastily put together, the Bigwoods were the ship band on the mighty Queen Elizabeth 2, known as Q.E.2 to those who know their luxury cruise ships. It had a useful cruise life between 1969 to 2008, including a stint transporting troops during the Falkland War. After its retirement, the ship wandered aimlessly in life until 2018 where it became a floating hotel in Dubai.
During the ships cruising days, The Bigwoods had the pleasure of serving as the ship band for at least two seasons. The group consisted of Bobby Bigwood, Anne Bigwood (unsure if spouse or sister), and Robb Wyatt. Anne played drums. Robb played guitar and sang. Bobby also sang as well as played the Cordovox, which the album insists is not an accordion despite looking awfully close to one. Apparently, they played on other cruise lines before the Q.E.2 gig, mostly out of South Hampton, UK. I believe Bobby was from Poole.
Well, I was kind of bummed that there were no female vocals on this album. But despite that setback, i rather enjoyed this effort which featured various songs from various backgrounds but seemed to focus heavily on a Caribbean sound. This no doubtably honed from their time on cruise ships to the region. Besides the island tunes, we have an Irish medley, the Greek “Zorba’s Dance”, and contemporary standards of the day such as “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” and “Those Were The Days”. This record came out on Chance Records out of Dorset and is no doubt a souvenir type record. Not sure when it was released but it was obviously signed in 1971.
For a sample, I must have recorded 3/4’s of this album for consideration. I decided to go with “Paradise Beach ” which I belive was written by Wyatt. I also went with “Israel to Russia In Three Minutes” because I thought it was a witty adaptation.
Satisfactory Album