Samuel Hutt (born 15 November 1940), known by the stage name Hank Wangford, is an English country and western songwriter.
Hutt adopted the persona of Hank Wangford when he decided to become a country singer in the late 1970s. "Hank is a good smoke screen. He can do things I can't do. He's my clown," Hutt told Howell Raines in 1988. "I actually had more of an identity crisis with being than with Hank, because Hank is a fool. I quite like him. Dr. Sam was definitely threatening to become a monster."[Howell Raines, "LONDON; A Singing Doctor Works the Land Between Ridicule And Reverence for Nashville", The New York Times, 6 March 1988.] He called himself Wangford after Wangford in Suffolk, which is where he first conceived the idea of using a nom de plume.
Background
In his appearance in the film
A Brief History of Brocket Hall, Sam Hutt claimed that he was born in an upstairs room at
Brocket Hall,
Hertfordshire, on the night of 14–15 November 1940, during
The Blitz. It was a forceps delivery. As he says in the film, Brocket Hall has a history of sexual scandals, involving the royal family and politicians but, by 1940, it had become a maternity home. The British Government had intelligence that the Germans were planning to flatten London on the night of the birth, when there was to be a full moon (The "Hunter Moon" or "Blood Moon"), which would provide good visibility. His mother was therefore evacuated to Hertfordshire for the birth. In the event, on the night of the birth the Germans bombed
Coventry, not London.
Sam Hutt's father was the journalist and communist activist Allen Hutt, who alongside his work as chief sub-editor of the Daily Worker and member of the National Union of Journalists executive committee was also renowned for his expertise in typesetting and newspaper design.
Upon leaving Cambridge, Hutt set up practice at a drug addiction centre in London, which "brought him into contact with a lot of rockers and wide renown as London's long-haired, rock-and-roll doctor."
Musical career
Early years
Wangford was interested in music as a child, and it was through his father's prominence in Communist Party circles that he first met the folk singer
Ewan MacColl, who lectured him on the need to remain true to his roots and not appropriate the music of other cultures.
His first writing credit (as Sam Hutt) was on a 1965 single by
Sarah Miles, "Where Am I", which he later described as having "atrocious" lyrics.
His first recording (credited as Boeing Duveen & The Beautiful Soup) was "Jabberwock"/"Which Dreamed It" (issued on UK Parlophone R 5696) in May 1968; he is co-credited as "Sam Hutt" on both sides together with
Lewis Carroll, with whose words the songs are adapted.
Inventing Hank Wangford
A meeting with former
The Byrds member
Gram Parsons,
whose wife was in meed of medical attention, first led Wangford to country music.
During this visit Parsons played the song "You're Still on My Mind" (from the album
Sweetheart of the Rodeo). "So I see here, and outside the curtain, Gram picks up my guitar and sings, 'An empty bottle. A broken heart, and you’re still on my mind,' – a song I still play to this day. That was when the penny dropped. Which it didn’t when I heard him play The Byrds. But just singing it there with his cracked voice... that was soul."
Parsons also introduced Wangford to the work of
George Jones, who remains his biggest musical influence.
However, Wangford only considered the idea of reinventing himself as a country music singer after breaking up with his girlfriend in 1976. He described his epiphany to Howell Raines thus:
Shortly afterwards, he made a "tongue-in-cheek" appearance in the Wangford persona at the May horse fair in Bungay.
The Hank Wangford Band
The Hank Wangford Band were soon gigging around the country, and recorded their first live album with Cow Pie Records in 1982. The 1984 Edinburgh Festival Fringe saw the band achieve some acclaim, with their show being nominated for the
Perrier Award. Fringe Sunday also saw the importation to Edinburgh of the sport of cow-pat flinging. Unfortunately, this required hard cow-pats as an essential part of the process. BBC Radio 1 DJ
Andy Kershaw had to put out an appeal for cow-pats,
which later had to be dried in a microwave oven for them to work successfully.
During the miners' strike that same year, the Hank Wangford Band toured extensively with Billy Bragg and the Frank Chickens as "Hank, Frank and Billy", performing at trade-union benefit and anti-racist gigs. It was during such a benefit for the Greater London Council (GLC) in 1984 that Hank and the band were attacked on stage by a group of right-wing skinheads,
No Hall Too Small Tour
Wangford has also toured with
Reg Meuross and with Andy Roberts on the "No Hall Too Small" tour of village halls throughout the UK as part of the
Arts Council-funded National Rural Touring Forum (NRTF).
Writing and television career
Wangford has written an occasional series of travel articles
for
The Guardian newspaper and is president of the "Nude Mountaineering Society".
He has also appeared on television, presenting the documentaries
A-to-Z of C&W and
Big, Big Country.
His performance in front of a crowd of inmates at Strangeways Prison – in imitation of
Johnny Cash at
San Quentin – was broadcast by Channel 4 in 1984.
Discography
-
Hank Wangford - Hank Wangford, Cow Pie Records (COW 1), 1980
-
Hank Wangford - "Wild Thing" c/w "All I Want", Cow Pie Records (PIE001), 1980 (7")
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Hank Wangford - "Cowboys Stay On Longer" c/w "Whisky On My Guitar", Cow Pie Records (PIE002), 1980 (7")
-
Hank Wangford - "Cowboys Stay On Longer" c/w "Whisky On My Guitar", WEA (K18712), 1980 (7")
-
The Hank Wangford Band Live, Cow Pie Records (COW 2), 1982
-
The Hank Wangford Band, Rodeo Radio, Situation Two (SITU 16), 1985
-
The Hank Wangford Band, Cowboys Stay On Longer, Sincere Sounds (Honky 1X), 1987 (12")
-
The Hank Wangford Band, Cowboys Stay On Longer, Sincere Sounds (Honky 1A-DJ), 1987 (7")
- CDs
-
Hank Wangford - Cowboys Stay On Longer, Reissue Albums One and Two, Sincere Sounds, 2001
-
Hank Wangford - Stormy Horizons, Sincere Sounds, 1990
-
Hank Wangford & The Lost Cowboys - Hard Shoulder To Cry On, Live Album Sincere Sounds, 1993
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Hank Wangford & The Lost Cowboys - Wake Up Dead, Sincere Sounds, 1997
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Hank Wangford & The Lost Cowboys - Best Foot Forward, Sincere Sounds, 2003
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Hank Wangford & The Lost Cowboys - Whistling In The Dark, Sincere Sounds, 2008
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Hank Wangford & The Lost Cowboys - Save Me The Waltz, (Double Album) Sincere Sounds, 2014
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Hank Wangford - Holey Holey, Sincere Sounds, 2020
- Cassettes
-
The Hank Wangford Band Bumper Box, Cow Pie Records (CCP1), 1981
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The Hank Wangford Band - Rootin' Tootin' Santa Claus, Cow Pie Records (CCP2), 1982
Bibliography
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Hank Wangford Volume III The Middle Years as told to Sam Hutt, Pan London 1989,
-
Lost Cowboys From Patagonia to the Alamo by Hank Wangford. Orion Cassell 1997
Notes
External links
