Hank Wangford


Samuel Hutt, known by the stage name Hank Wangford, is an English country and western songwriter.
"Hank is a good smoke screen. He can do things I can't do. He's my clown," says Dr. Hutt, who has been struggling to balance his musical and medical interests ever since medical school at Cambridge University. His 1960s practice in a drug-addiction centre brought him into contact with a lot of rockers and wide renown as London's long-haired, rock-and-roll doctor, and later a television series. "If The Who had a first night, the tickets would be sent. I actually had more of an identity crisis with that than with Hank, because Hank is a fool. I quite like him. Dr. Sam was definitely threatening to become a monster."

Early and personal life

He was born in Wangford, Suffolk, England. He studied medicine at Cambridge University and eventually became a doctor.
His first writing credit was on a Sarah Miles 1965 single "Where Am I". His first recording was credited as Boeing Duveen & The Beautiful Soup with "Jabberwock"/"Which Dreamed It" issued on UK Parlophone R 5696 in May 1968. He is co-credited as the writer as "Sam Hutt" on both sides together with Lewis Carroll, the songs are adapted. Hutt's family background is radical: his father Allen was a lifelong Communist. During the NUM miners strike in 1984/85, the Hank Wangford Band toured extensively with Billy Bragg and the Frank Chickens as "Hank, Frank and Billy" performing at trade-union benefit and anti-racist gigs. It was during such a benefit for the Greater London Council in 1984 that Hank and the band were attacked on stage by a group of right-wing skinheads, an event that has been immortalised in the song "On The Line".

The Hank Wangford Band

A chance meeting with former Byrds member Gram Parsons, who played him the song "You're Still on My Mind", led him to country music.
The 1984 Edinburgh Festival Fringe saw the Hank and the Wangfords achieve some acclaim, with their show being nominated for the Perrier Award. Fringe Sunday also saw the importation to Edinburgh of the sport of cow-pat flinging. Unfortunately, this required hard cow-pats as an essential part of the process. BBC Radio 1 DJ Andy Kershaw had to put out an appeal for cow-pats which later had to be dried in a microwave oven for them to work successfully.

No Hall Too Small

Wangford has also toured with Reg Meuross and latterly with Andy Roberts on the "No Hall Too Small" tour of village halls throughout the UK as part of the Arts Council-funded National Rural Touring Forum.

Writing career

Wangford writes an occasional series of travel articles for The Guardian newspaper and is president of the "Nude Mountaineering Society".

Discography

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