The Korgis, The Lost Trades, & Rachel Hill, The Laverton Westbury, 21/07/2023.

Rachel Hill

We hear a lot of bad news these days, but there have been things to celebrate in Westbury recently. Firstly, the iconic White Horse is getting a much-needed refurbishment, and secondly the annual Westbury Festival has been taking place. One of the highlights for me has been the concert on Friday 21^st of July at the Laverton Hall featuring The Korgis, The Lost Trades, & Rachel Hill. The M.C. for the evening was Leander Morales fresh from his triumphant appearance at Glastonbury. The opening act was a young singer-songwriter from Cambridge called Rachel Hill who accompanied herself on acoustic guitar. She also very cleverly made use of a loop pedal which allowed her to harmonise beautifully with herself to stunning effect. Songs that stood out for me were her own compositions Ghost, Peaches & Cigars and It’ll Be Ok. The audience joined in enthusiastically with the choruses of the songs. The highlight of Rachel’s short but sweet set was her acapella version of Creep by Radiohead which got a huge ovation from the audience. 

The Lost Trades.

The second act of the evening was Wiltshire’s very own The Lost Trades. They are Jamie R Hawkins, Phil Cooper and Tamsin Quin. Some of the songs on their first album were recorded right here in Westbury at Phil’s house. They were all successful solo artists on the folk scene before pooling their talents to form The Lost Trades and have since built a reputation as a great live act and have spent weeks on the Folk album charts. If you like acoustic Americana type music with great harmonies, then The Lost Trades are the band for you. Crosby, Stills & Nash always come to mind when I hear their songs. 

Lost Trades.

Outstanding songs from their wonderful set included Old Man Of The Sea, Atlas, Long Since Gone, Little Blackbird, Valhalla, Fireflies and Best Foot Forward. In fact, every song was enjoyable. I predict a bright future for The Lost Trades. They deserve to be performing at Glastonbury next summer. 

The final act of the evening were The Korgis. They are mainly known for their hit singles If I Had You, and Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime which was a huge hit all over the world in 1980. There is a lot more to The Korgis than that though. Although they became famous in many countries, they are still a local band. Some of their early recordings were made in Camden Crescent in Bath after they were formed from another successful band called Stackridge. The only original member of the band I recognised in the present line-up was the singer James Warren. 

They are presently a five-piece band, including a female member called Danielle. The opening song was the reggae influenced Sign On The Dotted Line, followed by a Stackridge song The Last Plimsoll and 10cc’s Wall Street Shuffle. One of the band Paul Smith used to play in a duo singing Paul Simon songs around the pubs of Bath with Roland Orzibel who later found fame with Tears For Fears. In recognition of this the band performed a mash-up of Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover and Mad World. After performing their hit If I Had You Danielle sang the lead on their version of Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse Of The Heart. A new song Oppenheimer was next. The band said it was a coincidence that there is a new film out now called Oppenheimer. 

Don’t Look Back was next which was a big hit in Brazil because it was used as the theme song to a popular TV soap opera. Trevor Horn produced some of their early hits, so the band paid a tribute to him with their excellent version of Video Killed The Radio Star. Other highlights included Hold On which included a video filmed at nearby Iford Manor, This World’s For Everyone, and a stunning version of The Beatles A Day In The Life, and their world-wide hit Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime. They left the stage, but M.C. Leander persuaded them back for one last song The Best Thing You Can Do Is Love Someone. That brought a most enjoyable evening to a close. Thank you very much to Ian Cunningham, Leander Morales and all the team that work so hard to make The Westbury Festival such a success.