WILD TURKEY
Wild turkey was formed in 1971 by Glenn Cornick after he left Jethro Tull. The original members were Gary Pickford-Hopkins on vocals, John ‘Pugwash’ Weathers on drums, Graham Williams on lead guitar, Jon Blackmore on guitar and vocals and Glenn Cornick on bass however, Pugwash and Graham left before any gigs were played (neither would work again with Wild Turkey until 35 years later!) and were replaced by Jeff Jones on drums and Alan ‘Tweke’ Lewis on lead guitar. The first album ‘Battle Hymn’ was recorded early in 1971 at Olympic Studios in London and had moderate success in Britain and the U.S.A. It was followed by extensive touring in Britain and an American tour, often supporting Black Sabbath.
After the American tour, Jon Blackmore left the band and was replaced by Mick Dyche on guitar and Steve Gurl, formerly one of their roadies came in on keyboards. A second album ‘Turkey’ was then recorded in 1972 at Morgan Studios in London and was again followed by extensive British touring and another tour of the U.S.
Early in 1974, Tweke left the band and they continued for some time with one guitar player until Bernie Marsden joined the band and was soon followed by Kevin Currie who replaced Jeff Jones on drums. Plans were made for a third album and possibly a change of direction and even of name and demos were made of some new songs when Gary left the band to join Rick Wakeman on his ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ project. It was then decided to fold the band and the final gig was at the Marquee Club on June 24 1974.
In 1995, Glenn was approached by HTD Records to make a new Wild Turkey album and ‘Stealer of Years’ was recorded in January 1996 at Digitaff Studios in South Wales with Gary on vocals, Tweke on guitar, Glenn on bass and Brian Thomas on drums. It was followed by only 2 gigs and the first one at the Jethro Tull Convention in Gravesend, Kent was done without Glenn who was in hospital with serious health problems. He was, however, suficiently recovered to play the second gig in 1997 at the German Tull Convention.
Nothing further happened until 2005, when it was decided to investigate the possibility of reforming the band to make a new album and maybe even to tour. With the help of Roy Evans, the financing was arranged and in April 2006 the ‘You and Me in the Jungle ‘ album was recorded at Bridgerow Studios in Glanammon, South Wales. The line up for the recording was Gary Pickford-Hopkins on vocals, Mick Dyche on guitar, Graham Williams on guitar, Steve Gurl on keyboards, Pugwash Weathers on percussion, Glenn Cornick on bass - all members at one time of the original band and with Clive Bunker who had played with Glenn in Jethro Tull on drums.
It was then decided that a tour should be put together and as Graham wasn’t keen to tour, a young American guitarist friend of Glenn’s, Brendan McGrath was asked to join the band. Steve also was unable to tour owing to a family emergency and his place was taken by their friend, Fabio Mastrogregori (on their Italian gigs) and their friend, Gonzalo Carrera for the British gigs. The tour began with the Italian Tull Convention near Alessandria in late September and another gig in Bergamo, Italy and then a tour of Britain through most of October 2006. Onstage the band played material from all 4 of their albums and were very well received.
Plans are in hand for another British tour in March 2007 and a European tour in Summer of 2007 and Glenn is currently working on new material in the hope that there might be a fifth Wild Turkey album!