Wishbone Ash at the Redstone Room -- November 25.
Tuesday, November 25, 8 p.m.
The Redstone Room, 129 Main Street, Davenport IA
Composed of bass player Bob Skeat, guitarist Mark Abrahams, drummer Mike Trescott, and guitarist Andy Powell, the latter of whom began recording with the group more than 50 years ago, a legendary rock outfit plays Davenport's Redstone Room in the venue's November 25 concert with Wishbone Ash, the band's "Wishlist Tour" boasting the trademark twin-guitar sound and mix of heavy-guitar edge and prog-rock adventurousness that made the outfit one of the definitive British hard rock bands of the 1970s.
A British ensemble that achieved staggering success in the early and mid-1970s, Wishbone Ash's most popular albums include its 1970 self-titled debut, 1971's Pilgrimage, 1972's Argus, 1973's Wishbone Four, 1974's There's the Rub, and 1976's New England. From the start, Wishbone Ash was noted for its extensive use of the harmony twin lead guitar format that had been attracting electric-blues bands since the mid-1960s. The band's contributions to this style helped Powell and former bandmate Ted Turner to be voted two of the “10 Most Important Guitarists in Rock History” by Traffic magazine in 1989, as well as appear in Rolling Stone's ranking of the “Top 20 Guitarists of All Time.” In 1972, Melody Maker magazine also described Powell and Turner as “the most interesting two-guitar team since the days when (Jeff) Beck and (Jimmy) Page graced The Yardbirds,” and Wishbone Ash has been cited as an influence on Iron Maiden founder and bassist Steve Harris, as well as Thin Lizzy and other dual-guitar bands.
Formed in Torquay, Devon, in 1969 out of the ashes of rock trio The Empty Vessels, the original Wishbone Ash line-up was founded by bass guitarist Martin Turner and drummer Steve Upton, with Powell and Ted Turner coming aboard prior to the outfit's first professional breakout, performing an opening set for Deep Purple in 1970. By 1973, the group was a concert and festival headliner in England, with Argus a number-three smash on Billboard's U.K. Albums Chart. And over the years since, Wishbone Ash has amassed a remarkable discography, boasting 20 singles, 12 live albums, 10 compilation albums, and 24 studio albums, the most recent being Coat of Arms. According to Metal Temple, that 2020 Wishbone Ash recording is "an album that is filled with their best classic features," while The Rock Pit raved that Coat of Arms' 11 tracks are "all very pleasingly cool."
For their latest tour stop, Wishbone Ash will celebrate their seminal 1972 album by performing Argus live, the recording still the ensemble's most commercially and critically successful full-length work. Praising the recording in an interview with Guitar World in 2011, Steve Harris from Iron Maiden said "I think if anyone wants to understand Maiden's early thing, in particular the harmony guitars, all they have to do is listen to Wishbone Ash's Argus album." Meanwhile, in his four-star review, AllMusic's William Ruhlmann said that Argus "set up the commercial breakthrough enjoyed by the band's next album, Wishbone Four, but over the years it came to be seen as the quintessential Wishbone Ash recording, the one that best realized the group's complex vision."
Wishbone Ash brings their "Wishlist Tour" to Davenport's Redstone Room on November 25, general admission to the 8 p.m. concert event is $30-35, and $80 VIP Experience tickets include early entry into the venue, an exclusive pre-show performance, a personal photograph with the band, a Q&A, and crowd-free merchandise shopping. For more information and tickets, call (563)326-1333 and visit CommonChordQC.org.
