Inspired equally by British folk traditions, American jazz and R&B, the group played to public and critical acclaim. More than 45 years later, WISHBONE ASH, the quintessential road band, has gained worldwide recognition, based firmly on a regime of relentless touring.
The band includes founding member Andy Powell, who handles lead vocals and trades licks with Yorkshire's Mark Abrahams. Bassist Bob Skeat, a 20-year veteran of the band, keeps the bottom rocking with Joe Crabtree, one of the best of Britain’s new breed of drummers whose performance credits include Pendragon, and David Cross of King Crimson.
With 24 studio releases, 11 live albums and five live DVDs to date, Wishbone Ash continues to prove they are not a band to rest on their laurels. Wishbone's third album, Argus (1972), was named The Best British Album of the Year by Melody Maker and considered to be one of the all-time classic rock albums, together with Pilgrimage (1971) and New England (1976). More recently, The Power of Eternity (2007), Elegant Stealth (2011) and Blue Horizon (2014) garnered enthusiastic praise. The band's biggest seller, Live Dates (1973), is one of the highly rated live albums of the 1970s. The latest musical project is Wishbone Ash: The Vintage Years (Snapper Music), a 32-CD deluxe box set spanning the years 1969 to 1991, featuring a coffee table book, posters, floppy discs, rare photos and more.
The constant of WISHBONE ASH has been ANDY POWELL, voted into the Ten Most Important Guitarists in Rock History (Traffic magazine, 1989) and the Top 20 Guitarists Of All Time (Rolling Stone). Through the years, he has been featured in notable publications, including Guitar Player, Vintage Guitar and Guitarist, and has appeared at the Guitar Institute in Los Angeles. In 2015, he released his musical memoir, Eyes Wide Open: True Tales of a Wishbone Ash Warrior (co-written with Colin Harper, Jawbone Press) which offers an inside track of five decades of life on the road and in the studio.