'It's been a wonderful ride': Strawbs' Dave Cousins and The Magic Of It All

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When Dave Cousins completed 2023 Strawbs album The Magic Of It All, he was determined it wouldn't be their last. Sadly his death in July 2025, aged 85, ended a story that began in 1964. Ahead of that album launch, he looked back with Prog on the band's colourful career, touching on the personal and business struggles he'd faced while making the record.
'The Strawbs' farewell album?' says Dave Cousins. 'Who told you that?' The esteemed prog folk act's sole constant since they formed in London in 1964, Cousins is referring to The Magic Of It All, the new LP he made in Cape Town, South Africa.
Flummoxed, Prog protests that the new record has been billed as the Strawbs' swansong in online news stories. 'Well, it bloody well shouldn't have been!' he says. 'Just because my body isn't up to playing live any more, it doesn't mean I won't continue recording. I have every intention of doing so.'
Chatting from his home in Sandgate, near Folkestone in Kent, Cousins is admirably upbeat despite recent health trials including a major cancer op, stent procedures and a full knee replacement. He has plenty to say about the new record's songs, and the South African musicians who feature on it, alongside fellow Strawbs Blue Weaver and John Ford. But Prog also feels duty bound to address ongoing controversies regarding who does and does not play upon the new LP, and why.
When news broke that absentees included long-timers Chas Cronk (bass) and Dave Lambert (lead guitar), plus Dave Bainbridge (keys and guitar since 2015) and Tony Fernandez (intermittent drummer stool since 1977), a ruckus broke out on Facebook. So what's the story?
'There was misinformation from fans and band members,' asserts Cousins. 'I found it deeply hurtful. There was resentment and vindictiveness – people saying this new album isn't the real Strawbs. I won't name names, but band members weren't saying things directly, they were recruiting other people to say things for them, which made it even worse.
'For me, the continuity of the band has always been about the strength of the songs rather than individual players. Anyway, with Blue Weaver and John Ford on the new record, this is absolutely a Strawbs album.'
The acrimony hasn't come from out of nowhere. With Weaver producing, Cronk, Lambert, Bainbridge and Fernandez all played on 2021's Settlement, which followed on from 2019's Strawbs 50th Anniversary Weekend in Lakewood, New Jersey. Even then, there was trouble at t'mill.
'The band didn't like Settlement,' says Cousins. 'I did. I thought it had a great flow, but the others were like, 'Oh, this is Dave Cousins and friends, innit?' Tony Fernandez [whose drum parts were replaced the release] wrote and said, 'Is this some kind of April fool's joke? This doesn't sound like any Strawbs album I've ever heard.' I thought, 'What are you on about?' Ultimately I had to decide what worked best for the songs – and when Settlement charted very high in the prog and folk charts, I was vindicated.'
While those tensions must have been a factor in Cousins' Strawbs planning thereafter, he says the rebooted line-up's South African odyssey arose out of chance. When his partner visited family in Cape Town, he decided to join her. 'But the air fare was expensive,' he says, 'so I thought I'd try to play some shows while I was there.'
To his surprise he drew enthused crowds, proving that South Africa had an ongoing love for the Strawbs . It's the legacy of their great popularity there in the early 70s when classics Lay Down, Part Of The Union and New World chimed with those contesting the apartheid system's Natives Resettlement Act, which aimed to remove black residents from parts of Johannesburg.
Visiting South Africa for the first time, Cousins received something of a hero's welcome – and he was tickled to find a Strawbs tribute act doing the rounds. It was after one of his own gigs, however, that documentary maker Niel van Deventer approached him with two propositions. Could he make a film about the Strawbs? And would Cousins write a new Strawbs album and allow van Deventer fly-on-the-wall access, while recording it at the Academy of Sound Engineering in Cape Town?
There's huge upheaval coming. But this world belongs to all of us – that's the point
For the bandleader it was a no-brainer – especially as van Deventer's sponsors could help finance the project. Why not make an album and a documentary simultaneously? It would further nourish the band's story, and input from talented local musicians would likely prove inspirational.
'Bassist Schalk Joubert had already played live with me in Cape Town; he was phenomenal,' says Cousins. 'He brought in Mauritz Lotz, the guitarist, then the wonderful drummer Kevin Gibson. I couldn't believe the quality of what we were recording, and how quickly and easily we were able to do it.'
Working at the Academy of Sound Engineering while students sat in for work experience the group nailed Cousins newies including Everybody Means Something To Someone – exploring the lost art of letter-writing – and the plea for inclusivity and understanding that is choir-bolstered folk ballad Our World. 'Migrants driven by climate change are leaving Africa for the rest of the world, and there's huge upheaval coming,' he says of the latter, co-wrotten with John Ford. 'But this world belongs to all of us – that's the point.'
Elsewhere, All Along The Bay – penned by Cousins and Weaver – mentions Cape Town's indigenous jazz music form, ghoema, while detailing some of the Strawbs' South African adventures. But what of the rest of the recent line-up? Were they invited to contribute?
Cousins doesn't want to go into specifics, but Cronk and Lambert did contribute to an early version of the track Wiser Now. 'It's a special and particularly poignant song,' he say. 'But when they sent me their parts... well, what can I say? I'd heard it all before, so when the opportunity arose to record with different people, I jumped at it – and out came a version that was extraordinarily different and very creative.'
(Prog approached both Cronk and Bainbridge for comment, but their responses didn't shed much light on the subject. Bainbridge said that, although he would like to provide some 'balance,' he'd hold fire. Cronk was in two minds; 'I certainly wouldn't want to get involved in a 'band at war' kind of angle,' he wrote in an email, politely declining to comment further.)
Prog wonders if Cronk and Lambert might have read meaning into the Wiser Now lyrics and taken umbrage? 'Nowadays it's ever clear / Friendships that I once held dear / Fade away and disappear / I'm wiser now,' Cousins sings in sepia-tinted, oh-so-English tones. 'No,' says Cousins. 'That verse hadn't been written at that point.'
Yet the words are lent addition weight in the light of current frictions. 'I know – but it wasn't intentional,' Cousins says, before veering off. 'The song is partly about me being a late starter as a songwriter, and there's also a reference to Bob Dylan's Simple Twist Of Fate. I was in the audience when he played a BBC TV show in 1965. I'll never forget it; he was mesmerising.'
If I contract any kind of infection, I should go straight to accident and emergency
Whatever the rights and wrongs of politics chez Strawbs in 2023, one thing is clear: Cousins will continue following his muse wherever it takes him. He won't stop making music, but he's definitely stepping down from live performance. He took his final bow at 2023's Cropredy Festival alongside 'Strawbs past and present.'
Cronk and Lambert declined to appear for reasons Cousins won't discuss, while US resident Bainbridge was sidelined while awaiting the green card that would allow him to travel. Involving Portugal resident Fernandez would would have involved intensive rehearsals, which Cousins would have been unable to undertake due to his incurable myelodysplastic syndrome.
'My doctor's advice is that, if I contract any kind of infection, I should go straight to accident and emergency,' he explains. 'I can't rehearse for long periods in enclosed spaces. Also, a certain other Strawbs member has a perpetual cough, so that wasn't going to work either!'
Various band members are written into the song. I can tell you the 'antiquated strummer' it mentions is me!
Does Prog sense that Cousins feels some former Strawbs have not been supportive regarding his illness? 'Yes – but that didn't influence any decisions I made,' he replies soberly. He adds that pragmatism drove his Cropredry team selection, featuring Weaver and the rehearsed South African musicians. 'Oh, and [guitarist] Brian Willoughby, too – he was a Strawb for a long, long time, you know. People tend to forget Dave Lambert left the band for 20 years...'
Ultimately, Cousins' ongoing focus is The Magic Of It All – and the new album's title track celebrates all he's experienced with the band. It's a travelogue, and a love letter to music, but it also details the odd wrong turn. 'When I sing 'We should have banked a goldmine / But then the bank went bust,' it's a reference to management pulling the plug on us financially circa Heartbreak Hill,' he says, referring to the album recorded in 1978 but not released until 1995. 'We'd got waylaid making pop, but Heartbreak would have put us back on top.'
Codification is king for Cousins. He writes his life into his songs, and playful new track The Lady Of The Night – the title appears to be a red herring – is billed as a light-hearted letter to Strawbs fans. 'I won't give too much away,' he says with a laugh, 'but various band members are written into it. What I can tell you is that the 'antiquated strummer' it mentions is me!'
Meanwhile, van Deventer's The Magic Of It All documentary will arrive later in 2023, include footage from the final Cropredy appearance alongside the making-of-the- album content. 'We're also doing new interviews with [former Strawb] Rick Wakeman and loads of others,'' says Cousins. 'It's going to be terrific. I can't wait to see it!'
He takes stock, thinking how best to sign off, landing on on The Winter Long from 1974's Hero And Heroin. 'You know, there are literally hundreds of couples who have used the end section of our trilogy Autumn as their wedding music. It's been a wonderful ride; it really has.'
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