WELCOME BACK
A duo back in the 60s, MH is now effectively just John Fiddler, whose new album is filled with love.
JOHN FIDDLER FORMED the duo Medicine Head with Peter Hope-Evans in 1968. Thanks to tireless guerrilla gigging plus mentorship from DJ John Peel (who signed the skeletal blues-rock duo to his Dandelion label at John Lennon’s behest) they were embraced as doyens of the underground. Having broken overground in ’73 – enjoying hits with One And One Is One, Rising Sun and Slip And Slide – they shunned the mainstream and split.
Alongside stints with the bands British Lions and Yardbirds spin-off Box Of Frogs, vocalist, guitarist, pianist and drummer Fiddler has occasionally recorded and gigged under the Medicine Head name, and has just returned to the fray with the twelfth album, Heartwork.
Who is in today’s Medicine Head line-up?
Well it’s me, basically, but David ‘Dzal’ Martin, who was in a band called No Dice, plays a fair amount of guitar on Heartwork, along with another dear friend, Dave ‘Bucket’ Colwell who plays on Making Up For Lost Love.
The track Get Your Hands In The Air retains a classic Medicine Head feel; with brooding restraint and warm, understated harmonica it’s an incarnation of the blues that never gets old.
It doesn’t. And that’s exactly the feel we were going for. Get Your Hands In The Air also features Belinda Campbell. She and I record the backing vocals together, and she’s got a phenomenal voice. I got the idea for that song walking in the rain reaching up to the sky.
It’s got a distinctly supernatural feel. There’s a kind of darkness to it. You can feel the sky come tumbling down.
This month The Dirt was compiled by Lee Dorrian, Ian Fortnam, Gary Graff, Rob Hughes, Emma Johnston, Dave Ling, Mick Wall, Henry Yates
There’s a lot of love on the album. I know. The funny thing is that almost every track had ‘love’ in its title. But as my old pal Nick Lowe used to say: “What’s
