LDM-E01-S2 LM03 THURSDAY, MAY 15, 2014 LEICESTER MERCURY 33leicestermercur y.co.uk

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‘You don’t get miserable listening to a miserable song,’ says rock ’n’ roll doctor turned Brit country legend Hank Wangford to Gemma Peplow

The Week is on the phone toHank Wangford, whocould well be naked at theother end of the line. We’renot sure. Because, among

many, many other things, Hank ispresident of the Nude Mountain-eering Society. “But I don’t go tothe shops with no clothes on,” heassures us.

“It’s usually when there’s no-one around. When I’m up moun-tains I’ll take my clothes off as I’mlooking out at the world.

“The first time I did it was inSouth America, and it was fant-astic and exhilarating and mad.Now I’ve done it up mountains inScotland, Romania, the Ap-palachians, all over. It’s wonder-ful. And swimming with nothingon is brilliant. But I’m not really anu d i s t . ”

Hank has written about his pas-sion for high-altitude nudity inThe Guardian, along with manyother travel articles that havenothing to do with getting yourkit off. Just travel for travel’ss a ke.

Writing is another string to hisbow (he’s also a doctor, who stillruns regular sexual health clin-ics – “although not this week be-cause I’m on tour” – but todaywe ’re here to talk about music.Specifically, country music.

“Hank Wangford is the twistedGodfather of the British alternat-ive country music scene,” s ay sthe blurb. “If Daniel O’Donnell isthe brightly scrubbed face of Brit-ish country music, then Hank isits guilty conscience.”

A DVA N TAG E SThrough his own music, as well

as books and TV shows releasedover the past 20-odd years, Hankhas been doing his best to showcountry music is not all aboutrhinestone cowboys.

“I like playing to people whod o n’t like country,” he says. “I liketo convert.”

It was Gram Parsons who con-verted Hank, he says. “He turnedme on to country. I was his doctor.When I met Gram I was kind of arock ’n’ roll doctor in the early70s. I was looking after KeithR i ch a rd ’s son at the time. Theyhave some great stories.

“You know, one of the advant-ages of living for a long time isyou have a long time to do things.I saw James Brown in 1963 whenhe was really in his pomp. Thereare advantages to being old.”

Hank is in his 70s and says hehas no plans to slow down justye t .

“I am one of those lucky peoplein that I do things I enjoy,” he said.“I love medicine, I really like trav-elling and I like writing about it,and I love country music. I’ve notgot the kind of job where I thinkabout retiring.”

Returning to his love of country,Hank says it’s the sad songs, thestories, that he gets the most outo f.

He said: “I want people to knowthat you don’t get miserablelistening to a miserable song – Id o n’t get miserable singing a sadsong. They’re therapeutic, theymake you feel better. There is a bitof a smile round the corner of themouth as well.”

Sad songsare goodfor you

You can see Hank Wangford andthe Lost Cowboys for yourself atO2 Academy Leicester tomorrow.Hank has played hundreds of gigsover the years, but says he has anaffinity for Leicester.

“There have been two small gigswhich I’ve done a few times,” hesaid. “The Musician, first of all,which is a lovely little gig. It’sreally done with care by DarrenKnockles, who runs the place. Ilike it when people go that far tomake somewhere nice.

“Then there’s The Donkey. Wepacked it there. There’s always agreat atmosphere. I like bothplaces. Both of them have a goodaudience and people who like tolisten. Plus, The Donkey is next toa Chinese called Big Wang, whichattracts me, obviously.”

Hank Wangford, in case youh a d n’t guessed, is not the namehe was born with. His partner, the“woman of his dreams,” he tellsus, would know him by the nameSam Hutt, “although she doessometimes call me Hanky”.

The alter-ego was born after agirlfriend left him for his flatmatewhen he was younger.

“It came from a village calledWa n g fo rd , ” he said. “I was inWangford in a pub and feelingsorry for myself. And I justthought ‘Hank Wangford, what agreat name’.

“A month later, I went on stage asHank Wangford and that was it.I’m pretty much Hank myselfanyway but Hank does things… Id o n’t know. Does David Furnishcall Elton Reg? I would guess heprobably calls him Elton.”

FULL BANDHank it is, then. It will be Hank

the performer you see if you go tothe show tomorrow.

He said: “I do small tours and Ido notice as time goes by, it’s like,‘Oh, he’s still playing.’ For thepast eight or nine years I’ve beendong something called the RuralArts Touring Scheme, playing invillage halls all over the country.Fantastic. I’ve been to everysingle county in this country andI’ve been having a great time. I’vebeen all around Leicestershire, toQuorn and a few villages roundMelton and Market Harborough,as well.

“It’s funny, you play villages afew miles apart and they don’tspeak to each other. It’s like, ‘d o n’tmention the neighbouring vil-la g es’.

“Anyway, I’m touring all thetime but in a less noticeable way.These shows will be different.This is the full band and the bandis really good. We’ve got MartinBelmont on lead guitar. He’s aclassic rock guitarist. On pedalsteel we’ve got BJ Cole, the king ofthe pedal steel players in thiscountry. We’ve got a singer calledAnna Robinson playing bass andshe does beautiful harmonies. It’sa good show.”

infoHANK WANGFORD AND THELOST COWBOYS play Waltzingwith Wangford at O2 AcademyLeicester tomorrow.

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