Jason Ritchie charts the rise and demise of a favourite band…

Waking The Witch initially consisted of Rachel Goodwin, Patsy Matheson, Jools Parker, and Michelle Plum, with Becky Mills replacing Plum in 2005, all of whom also worked as solo artists, and they took their name from a song on the Kate Bush album ‘Hounds of Love’.

They told us more about their origins in a 2007 Rising Stars interview for this site –

“We all knew each other, or at least of each other, before forming the band, even Becky the newest member. We’d bumped into one another on and off doing solo gigs, mainly in the North. Everybody was tired of slogging it out alone, which can be really hard work and not a lot of fun – especially when you’re setting up your own PA every night! – and we wanted to do something based around vocal harmonies. We figured it would be more fun. And so ‘Waking the Witch’ was born.

It was a bit hairy scary with the band name. None of us could agree on a name for weeks and then suddenly, without any discussion that that was what we were going to do, two of us went home and raked through our album collections and completely independently came up with the name, ‘Waking the Witch’ , a song from Kate Bush’s ‘Hounds of Love’ album. Spoooooooooky. We just had to go with it.

Up until recently, our style of music has been really difficult to categorise – kind of rootsy/folksy/bluesy/acousticy – but since we did the new CD and teamed up with the producer, Dave Creffield, it’s been tagged ‘indie acoustic’, which is pretty cool.”

They received airplay from BBC DJ’s including Bob Harris, Janice Long, and Charlie Gillett, along with appearances at several major UK festivals including Glastonbury, Trowbridge and Cambridge, and headlining the Holmfirth Festival of Folk in 2006.

They released three albums — Like Everybody (2004), Hands and Bridges (2005), and Boys from the Abattoir (2007).

Waking The Witch | Spotify

Their ‘Boys from the Abattoir’ was this reviewer’s introduction to their music and it remains a firm favourite all these years later. The review summary still stands true –

“Put simply if you like harmony filled acoustic music then BUY THIS NOW! If you like bands like Shaw/Blades, the Thorns and Joni Mitchell this will amaze and delight your ears.”

Reviewing their Windsor gig in 2007 they more than matched their promise in the recording studio –

“An excellent night of acoustic/vocal based music and both artists are well worth checking out, especially Waking the Witch who are simply one of the best female fronted folk/acoustic bands out there today.”

Waking the Witch split up in 2008 after a farewell tour, although there was a reunion show in February 2010 (without Jools Parker) raising funds for the Haiti earthquake appeal.

Becky Mills is still active on the folk scene with her latest album ‘Tall Tales and Home Truths’ is worth tracking down. She teamed up with Patsy Matheson for a tour in 2012 which this reviewer caught at their stop at Farnham Maltings.

Patsy Matheson released a couple of solo albums with ‘Stories Of Angels & Guitars’ a good place to start. She made a return to live performances at the end of last year with a couple of local gigs.

Michelle Plum went on to work with Chumbawamba, former Smokie singer Chris Norman and is currently half of the Plumhall duo.

Both Jools Parker and Rachel Goodwin appear to have quit music.

Waking The Witch never got the recognition their music deserved and if they would have certainly proved a big hit in the recent folk and singer songwriter revival of these past few years.

Waking The Witch

Becky Mills looks back at her time in Waking The Witch, her subsequent solo career and her plans for 2023…

What were your highlights of your time in Waking the Witch?

There were so many highlights belonging to a band like Waking the Witch. I was the lucky one who got to hear them live as an audience member. I supported them once in their early format and was just blown away by their sound so that was my first highlight. I always said to them, ‘I wish you could see Waking the Witch live like I did’.

Of course there were lots of lovely festivals, Glastonbury being the biggest and that was fun but my favourite thing of all was doing the rural arts tour which put us on in village halls around Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and even Dorset.

I loved those village hall gigs, we got to be in charge of our own sound, we got amazing home cooked food and stayed in strange peoples houses. Patsy and I loved strange people’s houses, we were always perving at property on Rightmove in whichever town we’d just played and fallen in love with. I still get to tour village halls in the Midlands with Ashley Hutchings doing a very similar scheme called Live and Local. Oh the food is so good at these gigs.

Why did the band decide to call it a day in 2008?

By 2008 we’d made Boys From The Abattoir and were at the top of our game and it felt like we’d peaked I think, speaking for us all. We were stuck between the genres Folk and Roots and we just couldn’t break in to the next level, our audiences just weren’t getting any bigger and although we were getting pretty well known we didn’t have the strength to give ourselves that last shove. I was preggers, Rach and Patsy had missed a lot of their kids Easters and sports days and all that stuff and it’s such a short time your kids are that age isn’t it. Both Jools and Rach already had their own businesses that were just taking off and we kind of mutually agreed that Waking the Witch was brilliant but had run its course.

Is there any chance of a reunion and/or re-issues of the albums?

I can’t see any reunion happening, sadly. I mean, I absolutely loved the noise we made and the fun we had but we’ve all moved on. To get together and remember all those songs, the rehearsal time it would take just to remember our chords and words, it makes my brain hurt! Just for a couple of gigs, it wouldn’t be worth it and then we’d be slack as a bag of knackers because you really need to be in the groove of a tour. You’re never at your best on the first few gigs, my god we were tight after a month.

Re-issue wise, personally I’d not mind if someone re-released our albums. It would be interesting to see what the listeners would make of our style today. Will it have aged well? It might not have aged enough to be vintage cool? You know how awful 80s music sounded in the 90s maybe our 00’s sound might not translate in the 20’s if you know what I mean?

Hardly anyone is buying actual albums anymore seemingly. Sales at gigs have gone right down because no one has a CD player it’s all digital now. I love to have an actual CD, I like looking at it while I play the music.

How different/difficult was it to start recording and touring as a solo artist?

Speaking for myself it was quite hard immediately after WTW. I had a baby and had lost my singing voice. It was the weirdest thing, I just couldn’t sing with feeling anymore.

Looking back I realise I was just knackered! Anyway, what happened was Ashley Hutchings and Ken Nicol asked me to do some backing vocals for them on their album Copper Russet and Gold, then asked me to go out and sing with them which was terrifying.

I was so out of practice and was suddenly reacquainted with the terror of standing on a stage, it was never an easy thing for me to do, in fact most musicians I know have that struggle. Ken Nicol wrote a thesis on stage-fright!

By the time my son Lou was a toddler Patsy was established as a solo performer again and asked if I’d like to go out as a duo with her, safety in numbers and much more fun. We were half of Waking the Witch so she got us some lovely bookings and we had the best fun playing from Devon to Scotland.

All this while I’d been crafting songs for my first solo album ‘dandelion’ and started recording it in 2012. I tentatively started doing solo shows and realised this was where I felt most comfortable. I loved the camaraderie of the duet but I never got in to my full stride. My shows have stories to them and need the continuity to make sense so all of a sudden I discovered that although I was bricking it, I was pretty good

Patsy lost heart with the gigging life and had a health scare as many know. She’s now working a very highbrow and creative job and smashing it! She’s still creating music and even taught herself how to play piano but has very little desire to go back to the slog of trogging down the motorway all day to wait around for 4 hours then do an hour and a half singing just to trog all the way back up the motorway. You have to really, really enjoy what you’re doing and Pats had stopped enjoying it. (stopping gigging seems to have brought the pleasure of music back to her)

I went on to meet my now husband and agent Gavin Stewart who started whipping me in to shape. Having someone to deal with the booking and business side left me to be creative and work on my show and writing plus he does all the driving. It’s great, I snooze all the way there and sip a miniature bottle of red wine on the way home.

My website has all my upcoming gigs and a shop. It also has photos and song nibblets to put you on with.

If you could give the younger you a piece of advice what would it be? (If that seems a bit Smash Hits please ignore!)

I do think about this every now and again, I’ve always had a really bad habit of hearing other people’s music and freaking out because I’m not as good as them. What I always failed to see was that I’m totally different to them and shouldn’t even be comparing myself. In a nutshell I’d tell myself to be true to me and never try and be anyone else.

And to never eat seaweed even if it’s wasabi flavoured.

What have you got planned for 2023?

2023 will see my third solo album being released, I’m really excited about this one. I have just started introducing some of the songs to my live shows and I love playing them. It means I have three albums worth of material and I can chop and chose my favourites, it’s a nice feeling. The new album will be called Carols Out of Season and it’s sad, happy and a bit quirky. I’m really into it and I never say that about nuffin!

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