Cadbury-Hicks
Pete Hicks and Dik Cadbury - Beach Hut Records BHCD5107
Reviewed by Alan Hewitt - The Waiting Room “ANOTHER SAD CASE OF THE BLUES AND OTHER STORIES”
Well, who would have thought it?
Any self-respecting fan of Steve Hackett will recognise the names of the two protagonists of this album as
key members of the classic Hackett band line up.
Amazing to think, as the sleeve notes to this release say, that this is their first album together - “about
time!“ I hear you cry (a damn fine album by Mr Cadbury that is too!).
Anyway, what do the two of them sound like together?
Bloody fantastic to my ears. OK, I’m biased but in the words of the song I know what I like and here we
have an album of solid rock and blues with some brilliantly observant lyrics thrown in especially on the
deliciously acerbic Recession Blues.
The album opens with Get Outta Here which to my ears sounds like the theme tune to the TV series New
Tricks but that’s no bad thing as it’s a great series and this is an instant toe-tapper.
Pete’s vocals have seldom sounded better than they do on this album while Mr Cadbury also turns in a nifty
turn himself in between playing more instruments than an octopus!
The one thing that is evident throughout this album is that it was evidently a whole heap of fun to produce
and it is an equally big heap of fun to listen to and I for one would love to see a gig by these two at some
point, how about it, chaps? Especially if you can bring along that Hackett chap to do his stuff on the blues
harp as he does on Just Another Honky Tonk on the album!
In
the
meantime
while
we
are
waiting(!)
for
that
to
happen,
what
you
have
here
is
a
collection
of
solid
originals
in
the
country
blues
style
which
will
make
you
smile
in
recognition
of
a
situation
or
character
from
your
own
life
so
vividly
depicted
here
in
thoroughly
entertaining
music
and
lyrics.
A
million
miles
from
Prog,
but
hey,
we
all
need
a
breather
from
that
sometimes
don’t
we
and
this
is
the
perfect
tonic
for
a
night
with
a
beer or a glass of wine and the company of two exceptional musicians - superb stuff all round!