Silly Wizard

Infobox musical artist
Name = ‎


Background = group_or_band
Origin = Edinburgh, Scotland
Genre = Celtic/Traditional
Years_active = 1970 – 1988
Label = Transatlantic
Highway Records
Shanachie
Green Linnet
URL = [http://www.harbourtownrecords.com/silly_wizard.html Silly Wizard's "Official" History Pages]
Current_members =
Past_members = Bob Thomas
Gordon Jones
Johnny Cunningham
Phil Cunningham
Andy M. Stewart
Martin Hadden
Alastair Donaldson
Neil Adam
Freeland Barbour
Maddy Taylor!-

Silly Wizard were a highly acclaimed Scottish Folk band, forming around a nucleus of musicians in 1971 in Edinburgh. The founder members were two like minded students - Gordon Jones (guitar, bodhran, vocals, bouzouki, mandola) and Bob Thomas (guitar, mandolin, mandola, banjo, concertina) who were later joined by a rather youthful Johnny Cunningham (fiddle, viola, mandola, vocals) still studying at school at the time. They ran and performed at the Triangle Folk Club for a time, then went on a tour of France in 1972. Soon after, they signed to Transatlantic Records to record an album with Maddy Taylor, who had sung with them on the tour. The album was recorded but has never been released.

The band then added Phil Cunningham (accordion, tin whistle, harmonium, synthesizer, guitar, vocals), Alastair Donaldson, Martin Hadden (bass, guitar, piano) and Andy M. Stewart (vocals, whistle,banjo). Their first LP to be released was "Silly Wizard", and they began touring throughout Europe. There were some line-up changes prior to recording their second LP, "Caledonia's Hardy Sons" (Highway Records).

Silly Wizard played a variety of Scottish folk music, both instrumental and vocal, from fast jigs and reels to slow airs. While the majority of the items they played were traditional songs or tunes, the band did write many compositions of their own. Phil Cunningham wrote generally instrumental music centered on the accordion, and Stewart wrote several songs in a style often distinctly traditional. Once Andy's singing and the driving, impassioned instrumentals of the Cunningham brothers had established themselves at its centre, the group's overall sound changed little until their final album, "A Glint of Silver", which introduced the synthesizer as a prominent part of the band, giving them a slightly New Age sound. It can be said, though, that certain albums (e.g. "So Many Partings" and "Wild And Beautiful") show a thematic or musical development that makes them more than an arbitrary succession of tracks - in fact the last 5 tracks on "Wild and Beautiful" were often played as an opening set to their live performances.

They continued recording until the late 1980s, when the band decided to dissolve after performing for seventeen years and releasing nine albums. Johnny Cunningham died on December 15, 2003 in New York.

*In Scots Trad Music Awards 2003 Silly Wizard were nominated for the best folk band award.
*Members of "Silly Wizard" played at Celtic Connections in Feb 2007.
* [http://www.sillywizard.co.uk Live Again] is a digitally remastered set of Silly Wizards live recordings throughout the 1980s. Release date TBC.

"Silly Wizard is not just another folk music group; they rank with the greatest creators and performers from any country from any time."

-"Niles J. Frantz at [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll| All Music] "

Discography

*1976 "Silly Wizard"
*1978 "Caledonia's Hardy Sons"
*1979 "So Many Partings"
*1980 "Take the High Road (Single)"
*1981 "Wild and Beautiful"
*1983 "Kiss the Tears Away"
*1985 "Live In America"
*1985 "Golden Golden"
*1985 "The Best Of Silly Wizard"
*1987 "A Glint of Silver"
*1988 "Live Wizardry"
*2008 "Live Again" TBC

External links

* [http://www.harbourtownrecords.com/silly_wizard.html Silly Wizard's "Official" History Pages]
* [http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/the-rovers/ The Rambling Rovers]
* [http://andymstewart.com/ Andy M Stewart's Home Page]
* [http://www.johnnycunningham.com/ Johnny Cunningham's Home Page]
* [http://www.philcunningham.com/ Phil Cunningham's Home Page]
* [http://www.harbourtownrecords.com/gordon.html/ Gordon Jones]