Willow

Willow

c1973 /4 Jazz / Rock

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I came across Willow through Sax player Joe Reynolds who placed an ad in several copies of Hobo in 1973 - 74. According to a recent interview (below) done by Ray Barrie, Joe didn't form this band but joined it. It was originally called Saffron. They began to write their own material in the last 6 months of the band's existence. They aimed at a Blood Sweat and Tears sound. 

The line up was Ted Arnold guitar - Noel Wood vocals - Jim Lang Sax - Joe Reynolds Sax - George Stevens on drums and they went through three bass players. Mick Broadhurst may have been their manager.

Joe Reynolds started off as road with The Chris Jones Aggression as roadie and also played harmonica with them on occasions. Joe was also a poet, played flute and sax and later, in 1979, played sax on The Selecter tracks recorded at Coventry's Horizon studio - at least on Three Minute Hero. Joe also worked with A Band Called George in 1974. Later in Vehicle a Leamington band.


Joe Reynolds was the first musician to advertise in Hobo Magazine, basic as the ad was, it started us off. 

Listen to an interview with Joe Reynolds.

https://www.audiowavecafe.com/1974494/10757468

Joe Reynolds has also played with Chris Jones Aggression (1970) and the reformed version of A Band Called George 1974.

In the early eighties Joe played sax with a Nuneaton based band called Tasty alongside Steve Johnson and Nigel Fletcher who had both played with Lieutenant Pigeon in the seventies. They played mainly funk/soul covers and the only Coventry gig was at the City Centre Club. After his dep work with The Selecter, Joe played on records by the VIPs, a Warwick Uni band and Seagulls, a local pub/club band among others.

Later he joined a soul / reggae band called Stax and played a lot in Coventry at venues like the Hope and Anchor in Whitefriars Street and the Commonwealth Club near the railway bridge in Lockhurst Lane, Holbrook and a residency at the Jubilee Pub at the end of the Stoney Stanton Road.

They also played regularly at La Chaumiere in The Burges and the Dog and Trumpet in the city centre. Stax lasted about two years, Carol Lloyd, the singer, left and was replaced by Ray King and Desmond Brown from Selecter joined later. They split up at the end of 1982, and the last gig was a New Years Eve one.

Joe Reynolds guesting on The Selecter's Three Minute Hero -on record and on Top of the Pops - see Video and photos below

Joe Reynolds was also a Coventry poet and contributed some poems to Hobo Magazine in 1974 - see below...

Poems by Joe Reynolds

FOR DAYLIGHT ONLY

Reflected spectrum on dew damp pane
Technicolour morning
Wisp away the sandman’s dust
Spraying wind to chill my face
Squealing seagulls whip the sky
Fingering foam claws the beach
Over the rock pool rapids.

Sandy lightening lizards
Moss covered rock wall walks
Spitting forks the bluebottle’s death
Sleepy venom adder
King of the anthill.

Red flamed circle kissed the crest
Rippling arrowheads across the waves
Captured second forgotten dusk
From the reaching cliffs echo
Cricket singing serenade the night
Tomorrow’s dawn will wake you.

Joe Reynolds c 1972
....................


TRUTH

Behind the spot light
that shows
what’s for us
I find after looking, my truths
folding themselves up.
To look small
and hiding behind each other
and towards the sides
of that light.
The countless confusions
struggling to find themselves
through the mist
that limps above them.

Joe Reynolds c 1972
....................................


PROSTITUTE

Through the alleys,
Night lights
Strike the slabs
And pierce the road
She walks ever watchful,
Dreaming
Of her non existing love
As profit
Rings the strings of her heart
Guilt and pride
Beneath her powder
Asking for her wage
Her mind all ablaze with dreams
As home she takes him
Pretence of not caring
Parrot fashion so straight
And upstairs
Her room
Her cold room
Nakedness in routine
That he must not see
A powder tear
As all her dreams
Of silk and bells
And old friends drive her forward.

And he unsuspecting
He mustn't’t know
As her cheeks tighten
As her fingers try to relax
In fear she holds her throat
With a rock
And smiles
As he dresses
His clumsy pants
She laughs so loud
He runs leaving his underwear
Behind
She picks it up
Still laughter.
A wardrobe full
Of past experience
And tears
If only one would stay
Could anyone ever come back
Or are they all married
Twisting
Her tears unfold
But listeners are as rare
As a unicorns horn
And who cares anyway
It’s her own stupid fault.

Joe Reynolds c 1972
.......................


The pain of honesty is that you have to tell the truth!

Joe Reynolds c 1972