The story of The Wurzels must start with Adge Cutler; as the band was created purely as a backing band to support Adge and his songs. Alan John Cutler was born in Portishead, North Somerset in 1930; one of three sons of Jack and Dorothy Cutler. Nicknamed 'Adge' by his friends, from his initials A.J., he was brought up and schooled in the nearby town of Nailsea, where a plague stands in Grove Park Sports Centre in his honour. It was at the Village Institute in Nailsea that Adge made his first public performance, at the age of seven - singing 'There'll Always Be A Nailsea'. It is evident that even then that the lure of Scrumpy & Western music - a strong feeling of local pride tied with a wicked sense of humour - was already making itself known in the young Adge Cutler.
Adge left school at 14 and had a succession of jobs including market gardener, working in his father's coach hire business, working in a Coates Somerset Cider Factory in Nailsea, and working on building a power station in North Wales. During this time Adge was already writing and performing music. He dates 1958 as the year he wrote Drink Up Thy Cider, and played his first paid gig at The Cavern Club in Liverpool; well before The Beatles had played there!
In 1960 he took a job as road manager for famous Somerset clarinet player Acker Bilk - a job which involved him driving Acker to and from concerts. It was during this time that he wrote many of his songs, singing them to entertain Acker - and keep him awake on those long drives across the country. During this time, he had met John Miles whose company, (now the 'The John Miles Organisation'), was a well-known and respected booking agency based in Whiteladies Road in Clifton, Bristol with many successful pop bands on the books.
After leaving Acker's employ, Adge spent a year in Spain working as an agent looking for property - but in the summer of 1966 he arrived back in Britain penniless. In June 1966, with little more than a fiver in his pocket and a collection of self-penned songs, Adge Cutler 'broke into' John Miles' office. From here on the story - and Adge and John's fortunes - would change quite dramatically. From the heady days of Cyderdelia and the so-called Summer of Scrumpy, right up to the present time... well, up to last Saturday anyway.