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THE PLUNGER MUSIC REVIEW

LOU REED STAR DONKEY SCANDAL SHOCK !!! 

Nothing like a bit of the old click-bait to pull the punters in… but seeing as you’re here now, may I direct your attention to the new album Songs Of The Donkey Shed, from John Halsey?

Before you say “Who?” no, not them, but Halsey (a.k.a. The Admiral) has drummed on recordings by other greats, such as Lou Reed (not all click-bait is lies), Joan Armatrading, Roy Harper and Roger Chapman, and toured with Joe Cocker. More importantly, he was a member of the British titans who bestrode the musical world, nay, changed it forever: you know, the ones whose name ended in ’… T.L.E.S.’? 

Yes, The Rutles, of course.

John (a.a.k.a. Barry Wom) has joined with Phil Jackson (keys & vox) and Ken Thornton (guitars & vox) to produce an album that is as English as chips and curry sauce, the White Cliffs of Richard or the sound-of-willow-on-district-nurses-cycling-to-evensong. The word ‘Quirky’ would be doing an awful lot of heavy lifting to describe SOtDS - off-the-wall, nostalgic, unhinged, heartfelt, hallucinatory, witty, accomplished, absurd… you get the idea. Fifteen (count ‘em, fifteen!) songs, mostly covers of numbers you might know but don’t know where you’ve heard them (plus two originals, one from Phil and one from Ken), that certainly carry a large portion of Rutles-related DNA in their renditions. 

The opener Music, Music, Music (or Put Another Nickel In) embodies the anarchic spirit in which they are approached: SFX of in-studio noises off (doors closing, tape decks being switched on [Duuurrr, it’s a jukebox, innit? ‘Nickelodeon’, geddit? Ed.]) lead to a slow loping take on the Teresa Brewer classic, with some lovely slide guitar and a laddish choir singing in the background, while foregrounded Uncle Ernie’s less salubrious gallic cousin lasciviously growls the lead vocal through a Gitanes smoker’s catarrh; meanwhile edge-of-hearing seductive girly ejaculations in French (from Mme Charlotte, Mlle Gavrochee, Alex Craimant and Elaine Halsey) gradually descend from ‘C’est si bon!’ to ‘Jacques Cousteau’ and ‘Quiche Lorraine’! Plus there’s more excellent slide and a fine upright saloon piano break to boot.

That sets the tone musically, temporally, and seriouslyly… that is, in terms of how seriously they approach things. Max Bygraves’ Out Of Town opens and closes to the sound of groaning OAPs (it’s OK, Plunger are members of the over-60s rugby club themselves now) and has the feel of a warbling 30s crooner cakewalk in the Bonzo’s mould, and there’s an even more vamped-up vibe to Marty Robbins’ A White Sports Coat, the slightly Noel Coward enunciation and bvs conjuring images of striped blazers, toothbrush moustaches and straw boaters (and allowing equal room for both fluid jazzy guitar and glockenspiel!) Marty gets a second outing in Stairway Of Love, rendered a cappella with only handclap accompaniment, the multi-layered doo-wop backing vocals lending a bit of a Kenny Everett air! 

There’s a touch of pre-war music hall in Don’t Jump Off The Roof Dad (who can forget that Tommy Cooper classic) with its malevolent Melvin Hayes-alike vocal and children’s choir; and that spirit is found too in Phil’s Don’t Knock The Pudding (a proper cockernee Christmas song, perfect for the halls, or round the ol’ Joanna in the parlour, “gather round, gather round, you too Auntie Vi…”); in the highly Flanagan & Allenesque Why Worry; and, not surprisingly, in Billy Cotton’s When A Black Sheep Meets A White Sheep (niche!) compete with occasional “Baaa” interjections.

Pickin’ A Chicken is a somewhat bizarre ‘Channel 5 children’s TV theme tune performed by the Plattlinger Isarspatzen oompah band’-style barbecue ballad, while That’s Amore manages to shed any lingering images of Dean Martin thanks to a ‘inna club stylee’ lead vocal, the ‘bunch of blokes trying to do falsetto’ call and response bvs, and a touch of comic asides (‘What’s a tarantella?’’I think it’s a spider?’)

Walk On By (no, not that one, the Leroy van Dyke country number) gets a fairly straight take (bar the Viv Stanshall lead vox and Mike Sammes singers bvs) with fine twangsome guitar and rattling drum and bass underpinning; Junior Choice stalwart Nelly The Elephant too is pretty down-the-line take, a fairground calliope organ/drum/tambo march with circus crowd SFX, as is the last dance at the 50s high school hop of Ken’s Last Call, (notwithstanding the pub closing time SFX… appropriate for former pub landlord John!) Straightest of all is Gracie Fields’ Sally, the fragile vulnerable vocal, piano and synth strings make for a genuinely touching version (helped by the accompanying YouTube video of John rootling through a box of old photos and memorabilia…)

But it’d be a disservice (and probably a breach of the Trades Descriptions Act) to leave on that note, so we’ve saved Autumn Leaves, the much-loved jazz standard, covered by everyone from Doris Day to Miles Davis, Sinatra, and the Bluecoats Drum & Bugle Corps of Ohio no less, until last: an accomplished, polished and emotional performance (proof, if it were needed, of the trio’s undoubted musical chops) with cracking saxophone additions from Daniel Mays, is effectively playing in the background of an increasingly bizarre comedy sketch involving plumbing, deceased birdlife (not a parrot, though) and a surprise 'bonus item’. Say no more.

Plunger are pretty stumped to guess who the target demographic for this is (anyone who likes a laugh, at least) but we suspect the chaps don’t really care about that TBH. We’ll leave the last word to them, “It’s been 4 years in the making and we are very proud of what has become Songs Of The Donkey Shed. At one point we were considering calling it 'The Why Album’ because we constantly wondered why we had made it. There was no big plan, we just got carried away. Which actually helped to make this album a very natural and purely fun experience all round. We dedicate this album to Neil Innes. Our beautiful friend always said John should have his own album… and here it is, Neil, we’re sure you would love it. It’s packed with tunes, it’s silly and for just the sake of having some fun. We hope it brings you all some much needed joy!”

It does.

Songs Of The Donkey Shed is out now, available to buy on CD here: https://admiraljohnhalsey.blogspot.com/2025/08/buy-songs-of-donkey-shed-cd-merch.html"

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