Dando Shaft 1970 - 71

 Dando Shaft 1970 - 71

by Pete Clemons

Visit Dave Cooper's https://raremusez.co.uk/Home/ for Dando related audio.


It must have been soul destroying for a band, on the verge of an album release, only for it to be ignored for whatever reason by the music press. Or maybe your release coincided with that by one of the major bands of the day. Then, of course, pages and pages were devoted to that particular artist.

And that's what appeared to be the case for Dando Shaft. A much needed window of opportunity, at the time of their first record, had slipped through the net. And that was the difference between success and mediocrity. However, by the time of the second album far more interest was beginning to emerge.

After eighteen months or so of playing the clubs and pubs of Coventry, Dando Shaft would eventually begin to make a name for themselves in London. This was particularly so at influential venues such as Les Cousins in Greek Street.

I can find no album review for Dando Shaft's debut album, An Evening With, but I did come across an advert at the time of the albums release which sought to promote the band. It read:

'Don't wait to be out of date. Book now and be in at the start of this fabulous new group. Five men, their own songs, you can hear the words and understand them. Tremendous instrumentals'.

December 1970 - new year predictions for 1971. '71 will be a very good year for Dando Shaft predicted a national music magazine. With Polly Bolton having completed her studies at Swansea University she was now free to spend more time with the band........

Dando Shaft's raw rushing swell of sound is apt to strike one off balance. It strongly favours the upper reaches of the scale, a situation which has been strengthened by the recent part-time addition of Polly Bolton, a university student who has increased the groups vocal power. Martin Jenkins' fiddle and mandolin work is particularly impressive. Their compositions are ideal for the group's sound, and their attitude towards music should give them a wide audience.

Polly Bolton appeared on several of the songs on Dando Shaft's second album. Here is a review of their 1971 release by the same magazine......

As with their first album this, their second album, has a very definite identity, and one that it would be very difficult to confuse with anything else. In comparison with the first album they have increased the stylistic variety of their compositions with pronounced success. To what extent this is due to Polly Bolton, who joined the group late last year, I cannot say but certainly her vocal contribution is extremely invaluable. Instrumentally the group have played with uncompromising drive. Polly's voice has balanced this with its biting intonation. Continuing the comparison, the production has exposed far more of the groups instrumental potential, covering a fuller range of bass and treble. Martin Jenkins mandolin playing is superb. His dexterity is such that the music almost knots the listener in its speedy paths. Martin is equally impressive with flute and fiddle, as on the beautiful 'Riverboat' which also gives Polly an opportunity to record a fine performance.

...........

A later review of An Evening with Dando Shaft appeared on this website

https://www.allmusic.com/album/an-evening-with-dando-shaft-mw0000016822

" An Evening with Dando Shaft Review by Richie Unterberger

On their first album, Dando Shaft came off as something like a more folk-oriented, yet also more hippie-oriented Pentangle. The percussive pulse of Roger Bullen's bass in particular gave much of the material a rhythmic swing that helped it stand apart from traditional folk, as did original material based around images of nature: rain, wind, leaves, the dawn, flowers, the country, and so on. The singing and songwriting betrayed a notable debt to Bert Jansch, though with a more whimsical bent that Jansch usually allowed. Their greatest assets, certainly in terms of putting their own stamp on a sound that bore close resemblance to aspects of Pentangle (and, more distantly, the Incredible String Band), were the colours added by multi-instrumentalist Martin Jenkins' mandolin, flute, and violin. As progressive folk that was pastoral in mood and not quite folk-rock, it was pleasant but ultimately not as distinguished or interesting as their unavoidable reference point, Pentangle. The Pentangle comparisons would if anything multiply when they added a female vocalist, Polly Bolton, for their next two albums."