Hot Vultures

(c’73-’79) Ian A. Anderson (guitar/slide guitar/vocals) and Maggie Holland (bass/banjo/guitar/vocals).

This Farnham based duo were popular on the UK and European folk scene and college circuits. They were often at The Copper Family’s Sussex folk nights and played early Cambridge Folk Festivals, and they released three LPs.

“Carrion On” was released in 1975 by Hot Vultures

The duo were at Sheffield University’s Folk Club on 17 October ’74, billed as ian A. Anderson’s Hot Vultures. The next year “Carrion On” was issued in the UK and Belgium and was recorded with help from Dave Griffiths (fiddle/mandolin), Dave Peabody (harmonica), Al Jones (guitar) and John Pilgrim (washboard). Late in ’76, we find the pair at The Cob & Pen Folk Club, Swan Pub, Sherborne St. John on 10 December. “The East Street Shakes” [RRR 015] named for East Street, Farnham come out in ’77 on the Reg Rag Recordings label, having been recorded at Riverside Studio, London and engineered by John Gill. The duo returned to The Cob & Pen Folk Club on 20 January ’78 and were at Crofter’s Folk Club, The Wheatsheaf, Alton, along with Earthforce, and John Lathey, on 13 September ’78.

Early the next year there was another return visit, on 19 January, to the The Cob & Pen Folk Club. Also, in ’79, “Up the Line” LP [PLR 018] was released on the Plant Life label and by Sierra Briar Records [SBR 4212] in the US. It was once again engineered by John Gill, but recorded at Leader Studios, Halifax with Pete Coe (mandolin/vocals), Chris Coe (hammered dulcimer/vocals) and Martin Simpson (banjo/guitar/acoustic bass/vocals) making appearances.

In ’80 they were invited to the States by Al Stewart, not long before their third and final album was released in the US (a rare occurrence for English folk artists of the day). While stateside they appeared on the Folk Scene show on KPFK Santa Monica, where they played live and were interviewed by the host, the late Howard Larman, about their music and the UK folk scene of the day. shortly after their stateside sojourn Hot Vultures joined the Tannahill Weavers, on 22 March ’80, at The Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke.

Around this time Anderson and Holland had started performing with Simpson as The Scrub Jay Orchestra. In 1980 the Plant Life label carried “The Preacher’s Blues” [PLRS 002] 7″ vinyl single; taken from the “Up the Line” LP. Eventually the duo expanded into The English Country Blues Band with the addition of Rod Stradling, Sue Harris (who was later replaced by Chris Coe) and later the ’80s electric country dance band Tiger Moth and then Orchestre Super Moth. In ’98 the Hot Vultures best of anthology CD titled “Vulturama” [WEBE 9031] was released on Anderson’s own The Weekend Beatnik label, pitched as ‘The best 74 minutes of Hot Vultures, ever!’

Latterly, Anderson has been in the duo The False Beards with Ben Mandelson. In ’82, he founded Farnham Folk Day, an annual event at The Maltings, Farnham running it until ’88. From ’87-’89 he directed the Bracknell Folk & Roots Festivals at South Hill Park, Bracknell and many other folk events in London and Bristol from ’87-’16. He organized tours for other artists and acted as agent for other folk and world music artists via his Farnham based Folk Music Services. Anderson also contributed to Blues Unlimited, the Western Daily Press, Melody Maker, Folk Review and Folk Scene. In ’79, he co-founded The Southern Rag, a local quarterly folk music magazine that grew to a 12,000 worldwide circulation. He founded an independent record label Rogue Records which became The Weekend Beatnik. Anderson presented a weekly folk, roots and world music show on County Sound in the mid ’80s and a weekly folk show on the BBC World Service for 12 years from 1987; and appeared on many other stations.

Holland pursued a successful solo and songwriting career with songs recorded by June Tabor and Martin Carthy. She released her first solo album, Still Pause, in ’83. In ’85 she was the female lead singer in the National Theatre’s three-month run of Tony Harrison’s Mysteries trilogy, and she toured the far east as a duo with Chris Coe. She moved from Farnham to Oxford in ’86. Holland won the BBC Folk Awards ‘Best Song of 1999’ with “A Place Called England” and was last heard playing in The Broonzies with Jez Lowe and living in Jez Lowe.

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