HELLO GOODBYE
Martin Turner and Wishbone Ash
It began with twin guitar glory, piss and wind. Later, fame’s fatal promise spelled the end.
HELLO AUTUMN 1969
Dust brothers: Wishbone Ash (from left) Steve Upton, Andy Powell, Martin Turner and Ted Turner in 1969.
Main image from No Easy Road (Madfish), David Sansoni, Getty, Dick Barnatt/Redferns/Getty
I’d been in The Empty Vessels, a fairly successful band in the West Country with Steve Upton and my brother Glenn. After a car accident, basically, I realised I had to have a crack at being a professional musician or forget about it.
So I went off to London and the other two guys came with me. My brother didn’t last long. We’d met Miles Copeland, who effectively became our manager, and we put an ad in Melody Maker for guitar players. After failing to approve anyone, we reevaluated. I really liked two guitars playing together in harmony, because I’m quite good at coming up with what I call pseudo-classical melodies. We got Ted Turner and Andy Powell back, and it was so obvious that it was going to work. We were impressed that Andy had built his own guitar, which we christened the Les Powell. Ted had just left school – we absolutely loved him as a guy.