THE MAGIC OF IT ALL
A CONVERSATION WITH BRIAN WILLOUGHBY
We lost Dave Cousins of Strawbs fame in July of this year. It was a huge loss in many ways. And although new material from Strawbs camp is always welcome, the new documentary, The Magic Of It All – The Story of the Strawbs, and a re-release of a very rare and very sight out album recorded by Willoughby and Cousins and originally released in a very limited numbers in 1993 titled The Bridge.
Besides being a former Strawbs bandmate, Brian Willoughby not only worked with Cousins but was also a very dear and close friend. By the time he had met Cousins, Willoughby had established himself in the world of folk music. Through many connections and turns, Cousins and Willoughby’s paths crossed enough for the two to work together in 1979. This collaboration resulted in the very successful album Old School Songs. The duo also toured a great deal and in 1993 and recorded The Bridge, which had only 1000 copies pressed that were quickly sold out. Thankfully, Willoughby has worked on the album, remastered it with help from former Strawbs member Blue Weaver, and has added bonus tracks for the 2025 remastered release.
Willoughby, who was quickly establishing a name for himself in the folk world, became quick friends with David Cousins, whose band Strawbs was gaining popularity. “I’d known Dave since my teenage years of going to see The Strawberry Hill Boys at the White Bear folk club in Hounslow, West London. Dave used to run a folk club there, and I was about 17ish, and some school friends and myself would go there every Thursday night, and there would be people like Ralph McTell and Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, those people who were on the British Folk scene. When I was about 19 or 20, I gave Dave a cassette tape of some instrumental tunes I had written and he kept that, and when he played on Mary Hopkin’s album Earth Song Ocean Song, she was looking for a guitarist to play live. Dave gave her my tape. Dave also put my name forward for my job with Mary Hopkin. She and Tony Visconti offered me the job on my 22nd birthday. But I had no intention of being a full-time musician, I was going to be a Spanish teacher.”
That work included a pretty extensive tour with Hopkin and her then husband, Tony Visconti, in 1972. But along with his own solo music and gigs, Willoughby also played on records and performed with artists such as Roger Whittaker and Joe Brown. And it was in 1978 when he received an offer from Dave Cousins. “In 1978, Dave fancied doing a tour of Folk Clubs and asked me to join him. The duo lasted many happy years, touring internationally and we recorded two albums, Old School Songs and The Bridge. We had a lot of fun as the dynamic duo.”
The album, The Bridge, came about because of their friendship and the fun they had performing as a duo. “Dave and I had a lot of success with our folk chart-topping Old School Songs album and we often thought of recording a follow-up. We toured extensively as Cousins & Willoughby, in North America, Italy, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Holland, and of course the UK, so we needed fresh products. Dave had some songs ready and we co-wrote “Cry No More” and “Do You Remember?,” then decided to record them. Our friends and fellow Strawbs, Blue Weaver, Chas Cronk, Tony Fernandez, Richard Hudson, and Rod Demick offered to help and we booked time with two of our favourite sound engineers, Vic Keary at Chiswick Reach Studios and Kenny Denton at Sonet in Acton. It is almost a Strawbs album but does stand apart from the Strawbs music/sound. Dave and I decided on a ‘live’ approach to the performances, as opposed to Strawb-like strict arrangements worked out before any recording. Given the talents of the musicians and sound recordists involved, the results were natural and inspired. It was a joy for us to overdub vocals and my lead guitar parts to the solid backing provided by ‘the band.’ It is somewhat of a lost gem.”
THE BRIDGE (REMASTERED) ALBUM REVIEW
It is, indeed, a lost gem. Only one thousand copies were ever pressed of the original CD and those are not easy to find. It is a shame, really, as the album is quite strong, full of songs that are very different from Strawbs. According to Willoughby, the album was originally to be sold at their acoustic gigs. “We thought of it purely as a product to sell on our Cousins & Willoughby tours and initially, it was only available on cassette! The RGF [Road Goes On Forever] label pressed it up on CD, but again, in limited numbers to cater just for the duo’s needs.” The new version of The Bridge comes complete with a new front sleeve. It is a beautiful photo taken in Venice. “That photo is of The Bridge of Sighs, in Venice. It is a covered bridge that connects the Doge’s Palace to the New Prison,” said Willoughby. The beautiful bridge and cover photo have somewhat of a dark past. “It was built in 1600 and named by Lord Byron for the sights of the condemned prisoners who saw their last view of Venice through its windows. Dave and I were on tour in Italy and playing in Venice, so we had to have a photo taken on one of the bridges. We chose a quieter spot, on “Ponte del Diavolo,” or “Devil’s Bridge,” which amused us at the time. This original photo appears on the back of the 16-page CD booklet.”
Before his passing, Cousins approached Willoughby about the idea of re-releasing The Bridge. “I was only too happy when Dave said he wanted to re-release it.” The album was recorded at Ringo Starr’s studio (Startling Studios) which is in his house, a house he bought from John Lennon, who happened to record “Imagine” there. But the state-of-the-art studio seemed to work for the duo for their recording. “It is a beautifully-recorded and spontaneous album. We didn’t tell the guys what to play. Nothing was suggested to the musicians, they all just played the songs. And with Mary Hopkin’s voice on four tracks, it is just beautiful. “Mary and I have remained close friends since 1971 and of course, she knew Dave from his involvement with her album. I told her we were working on a project, and she happily agreed to join us on some songs. The album took on a new, exciting dimension with her melodic voice on “Further Down the Road,” “Morning Glory,” “Do You Remember?” and “Cry No More.” Everyone in the studio was thrilled to meet her. Kenny Denton was going to expire when I introduced them!”
There are some extremely good and fascinating bonus tracks on the album. “We found a bootleg album, from one of our duo shows and the quality of the recordings was quite good, so we decided to add bonus tracks from it. I chose “Desert Song,” “Beat The Retreat,” plus “Ways and Means,” where I drop a stitch on my solo and Dave’s laugh is priceless. “Ringing Down the Years” features Dave’s heartfelt spoken introduction to the song, which was written for Sandy Denny.”
The new documentary about the Strawbs, The Magic Of It All – The Story of the Strawbs has a very unique history, and it came to the band in an unusual manner. “Dave’s other half, Marianna, would visit her son who lives in South Africa. They went to visit him, and he introduced Dave to various musical people in Capetown. He was invited to do some last-minute shows there and he did. There he met Schalk Joubert, one of South Africa’s best-known bass players and he is a big Strawbs fan. And he played with Dave, and Dave loved it, and on another visit to South Africa, Dave and Blue Weaver recorded an album with Schalk and a guy named Kevin Gibson on drums. And, South Africa’s most recorded musician, Mauritz Lotz, who is the most wonderful guitar player. They made the album [The Magic of It All], and Cathryn [Craig] sang backing vocals on it, I didn’t play on it but she sang on it.”
The Magic Of It All, a brilliant album, would prove to be the last studio work of Cousins released in his lifetime. But that album provided filmmakers with an idea for a film. “Dave called me up at the beginning of 2023, he said ‘look, I am going to have to stop performing, but I want to do one final show,’ at a festival run by Fairport Convention in Cropredy. He asked me to play, fully expecting other members of the band would be joining, but it turned out to be Schalk, Kevin, Maurice as the core band with me joining Maurice on twin lead guitars and Blue Weaver and former Strawbs John Ford, so he could play Dave’s rhythm guitar parts. Dave had gone past the point of being able to play.”
“Through the South African connection, two gentlemen, Natie Botes and Rob Abendanon, said we would love to make a documentary on you guys. So, they interviewed many former members and then came to the Cropredy and filmed. So, the documentary is partly talking about the history of the band, obviously, predominantly with Dave talking, and then footage from Cropredy.”
With the film getting ready to be distributed and the re-release of the album The Bridge, Willoughby hopes that the album will be heard and enjoyed by fans of the band and of music in general. “I hope they get to hear . . . first I am a huge fan of and friend of Mary Hopkin, I think she added priceless quality to the four songs she sang on. I think to hear that, in conjunction with what people associate with the Strawbs, really Dave’s voice, I think people will be very pleasantly surprised. Also, the general musicianship of all the guys.”
Now, the album is available again, and in a beautiful sounding format. The Bridge is an album that has grown in stature as a lost classic, now people can hear it for themselves. And with the documentary, The Magic Of It All – The Story of the Strawbs also getting ready to be seen—it has already premiered—David Cousins and Strawbs will continue to live on.
Cousins & Willoughby Links
Strawbs Links
Cathryn Craig Links
Photo Credits: Richard Huggard
