Adrian Edmondson is without doubt widely known for his slapstick character ‘Eddie Hitler’ in the 90’s comedy ‘Bottom‘ and before that ‘Vyvyen’ in ‘The Young Ones‘, but there’s more to him than getting his legs chain-sawed off and dreaming up random schemes to land beautiful women.

Adrian Edmondson was a teenager when punk arrived. The songs of The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Jam and The Stranglers were the soundtrack to his life through the late 70’s and early 80’s, and like a lot of people of his generation he was fond of playing these songs to himself at home on his acoustic guitar.

Cut forward to 2007: after a boozy pre-Christmas lunch in Soho, Ade stumbled along to Denmark Street, home of many alluring musical instrument shops, and whilst inebriated, ‘accidentally’ bought a mandolin. Surprised to see it sitting there in his kitchen the following morning he nevertheless picked it up, worked out a few chords, and started playing the same songs with a mandolin accompaniment – it sounded really interesting.

He was touring with the Bonzos at the time and he brought his mandolin along, and with Neil Innes on acoustic guitar, they had a go at London Calling in the dressing room. It sounded good, but Neil said ‘What you need are some brilliant folk musicians.’

Ade got in touch with Troy and Maart and they were both immediately up for it. As soon as he explained the idea to Troy: ‘Punk era classics with Celtic folk arrangements.’ Troy replied ‘Why not The Model by Krafwerk as well? I’ve always wanted to play that on the pipes.’

They met for a couple of days to mess about with the idea. If it didn’t work they could all just walk away. But within the first hour they knew they were onto something. In the two days they drank numerous beers, ate 2 curries and arranged 8 songs – and the band was born – Adrian Edmondson & The Bad Shepherds.

After completing the line up with Andy Dinan on fiddle, they rehearsed hard and towards the end of 2008 they toured England to packed houses and very appreciative audiences.

They’ve recently recorded an album, ‘Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Methera!’, which is out now – it was recorded ‘as live’ at Blue Moon studios in Banbury. ‘Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Methera’ means ‘One, Two, Three, Four’ in an ancient Cumbrian dialect used almost exclusively by shepherds. Had The Ramones been Cumbrian shepherds, it’s what they would have shouted as the intro to every song…

Adrian Edmondson & The Bad Shepherds are playing Central Station in Wrexham on Thursday 23rd July.

Tickets are £15 advance and doors are 7.30pm with over 14’s welcome. Tickets are available from Yales Café Bar, Wrexham – 01978 358780, seetickets.com, ticketline.co.uk – 0870 444 5556. I.D may be required to purchase alcohol.