Dando Shaft pick up the pieces.....

 Dando Shaft pick up the pieces.....

by Pete Clemons

June 1972 saw the release of Lantaloon, Dando Shaft's third album. It would be their last - (until the brief reunion in 1977). One review mentioned 'The groups sheer unpredictability is a joy'.

Despite its adulation, soon after Lantaloon's release, the band broke up. This wasn't quite the end however. By October mk 2 Dando Shaft was under way seemingly led by Martin Jenkins.........

There was no great fuss when Dando Shaft broke up recently. In any case many people weren't aware of the fact that and only their faithful followers mourned the passing. 'Lantaloon', the third fine album of their work, had scarcely found the opportunity to make an impression when the decision was made.

But in the past month lead Instrumentalist Martin Jenkins has succeeded in picking up the pieces and has put together a new Dando Shaft with a fresh approach to the music. After an intense period of rehearsal they are all ready to go out on the road once again.

Only conga and tabla player Ted Kay survives from the original band, and the new Dando's will feature Coventry songwriter Roger Williamson on guitar, and the old bands roadie Bill Borthwick on bass.

'The old group had steadily built up a following although we'd never been a huge draw' Martin reflected. 'There were lots more things we could have done - like we had plans to go electric with the old band but never quite got around to it and economically it was difficult.

'The first person to leave was Polly (Bolton) because she didn't really dig the travelling too much. Then later Dave (Cooper) just decided he didn't want to do it anymore and Rog (Bullen) and Kev (Dempsey) decided they didn't want to do it anymore either - they just didn't want to go on playing professionally'.

Martin's first reaction was to join another band but in the meantime he started to jam with Ted Kay, the old group percussionist, and Bill Borthwick. 'That's what made us decide to have a bash at getting another Dando Shaft together' Martin went on. And this was the cue for him to use his fiddle, mandolin and cello in an electric context for the first time.

'We figured on asking Rog Williamson, an old friend from Coventry to join up with us, and at the moment our material consists about half and half of his songs and mine. We're also doing a few of the old group numbers like 'Coming Home', 'Road Song', 'It Was Good' and 'Now's the Time For Changing', but the basic difference is that this band is a lot funkier - Rog's stuff is pretty funky' Martin added.

'We decided to keep the same name because the feel of the music is generally the same, it's just a bit heavier. In any case during the early days of Dando Shaft we used to listen to a lot of Roger's stuff back in Coventry, and Ted and I did a couple of things with Roger on record'.

Had Dando Shaft evolved in the way Martin had intended during their two and a half years together ?. 'It didn't really, because I wanted to use electric gear on 'Lantaloon' but in the end we just didn't have time to get into the instruments properly - in fact, we were a bit rushed in doing the 'Lantaloon' record'.

So where had the first band slipped up - mismanagement perhaps? 'Well there's no way of knowing whether or not we were mismanaged', Martin decided. 'I'm just pleased that it took a long time for us to build up a following: I think that if the old band on and gone electric it would have turned out pretty well as we are now'.

The band now hope to get their stage act worked out with a series of live performances. They have a good deal of work ahead of them as bookings have continued to come in for the old band. Maybe after a few months they will decide to start work on an album for they have no doubts about the material.

Roger and Martin will largely be sharing the vocals, and although initially Roger will be playing mostly a rhythm behind Martin's lead work, eventually they hope to get the same counterpoint playing going as Martin had succeeded in doing with Kev Dempsey.

'Kev's a genius and it's sad we lost him' Martin went on. 'But Rog and I hope to be doing similar things as we'd achieved in the old band'.

Martin already has designs of augmenting the band as soon as finances allow. A full drum kit, various other instruments such as flute which he Hope's to incorporate himself, and a likelihood of at least one addition to the band.

'I just hope that all the people who saw the old Dando Shaft will enjoy the new Dando Shaft as well' was his parting remark.

As it happened, Mk 2 Dando Shaft failed to fly. That said, dates were undertaken. Amongst them in places like Cheltenham, Hull, Exeter and the College of Education in Leicester but sadly the album failed to materialise.