Trisha Shetty (Editor)

The Humblebums

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Years active
  
1965 (1965)–1971

Record label
  
Transatlantic Records

Genres
  
Folk music, Pop music

Labels
  
Transatlantic Records

Albums
  
The New Humblebums

The Humblebums vivavinylcomwpcontentuploads201402GerryRa

Origin
  
Glasgow, United Kingdom (1965)

Members
  
Gerry Rafferty, Billy Connolly

Similar
  
Joe Egan, Stealers Wheel, Rab Noakes, Raphael Ravenscroft, Hamish Imlach

Shoeshine boy the humblebums by blue bird 1972


The Humblebums were a Scottish folk band, based in Glasgow. Its members included Billy Connolly, who later became a renowned stand-up comedic actor, guitarist Tam Harvey and the singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty. The band was active from the mid-1960s until the early 1970s.

Contents

Career

Connolly co-founded the band with Harvey in 1965 and played in the pubs and clubs around the city, most notably the Old Scotia Bar. Connolly sang, played banjo and guitar, and entertained the audience with his humorous introductions to the songs. Harvey was an accomplished Bluegrass guitarist.

Rafferty joined later and for a short time they performed as a trio. However, the nature of the act had changed and Harvey departed shortly afterwards. The remaining duo broke up in the early 1970s after recording two albums of material: The New Humblebums and Open Up the Door, the former graced by a cover by John "Patrick" Byrne, marking the beginning of a long working relationship between Byrne and Rafferty. Connolly embarked on a solo career while Rafferty recorded a low impact solo album, Can I Have My Money Back?, then formed Stealers Wheel with Joe Egan before eventually emerging as a major recording act with "Baker Street".

A number of songs performed by Connolly on his early comedy albums originated with the Humblebums, and actual Humblebums recordings also frequently turn up on Connolly compilations. A number of Humblebums recordings were reissued following Connolly's rise to international stardom. The Rafferty tracks from this period have been released in a variety of formats, some with just Humblebums material, others adding some or all of Can I Have My Money Back?

Albums

  • First Collection of Merry Melodies (Transatlantic TRA186, February 1969)
  • The New Humblebums (Transatlantic TRA201, September 1969)
  • Open up the Door (Transatlantic TRA218, June 1970)

    • Singles

  • "Saturday Round About Sunday" (BIG122, 1969)
  • "Shoeshine Boy" (1970 written by Rafferty) / "My Apartment" (written by Connolly)

    • Compilation albums

  • The Complete Humblebums (3 LPs, Transatlantic TRA288, 1974)
  • The Humblebums (MTRA2008, 1979)
  • The Best of the Humblebums (Pulse PDSCD542, 1996) 2-CD set
  • The Humblebums (ESMCD498, 1997) single disc containing all of the second and third albums
  • Please Sing a Song for Us: The Transatlantic Anthology (Castle CMDDD1211, 2005) 2-CD set with previously unreleased material

    • Songs

    Please Sing a Song for UsCan I Have My Money Back? · 1971
    Shoeshine BoyCan I Have My Money Back? · 1971
    Her Father Didn't Like Me AnywayCan I Have My Money Back? · 1971

    References

    The Humblebums Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA