ANDY DOCHERTY AND THE CAPED CRUSADERS BIO
Andy Docherty is a singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/bandleader & recording artist. He started all this recording malarky as the frontman of the group ‘N.T‘ in 1991 with the other founding members, Sace & DJ Easi. The band were given their break by ‘The Stereo Mc’s‘ & Mike McCormack who signed them to their label Response records on R.C.A. Releasing their seminal 90’s tune ‘Responsibilities‘. Further spells with Epic resulted in collaborations with ‘The Black Eyed Peas‘ & Dj Femi Femme among others and ‘NT’ had a strong effect on the ’90s being innovators of the trip-hop movement.
NT EPK
This is rare footage from their 1996 EPK including footage of areas in Glasgow the played in The Bench, 141, Volcano, Blueprint, DJ Eh? Wan, Clan Skates.
WHAT DID I DO WITH ANDY DOCHERTY AND THE CAPED CRUSADERS?
I played with the Caped Crusaders regularly on Friday nights at Power’s bar on Kilburn High road.
It was always entertaining and unexpectedly different. The band was never the same lineup for long as many of the people we played with were full-time musicians. Some of the band members I can remember playing with were Otto Williams (Kid Creole and The Coconuts, Ray Blk, SIA, Amy Winehouse, Chaka Khan, Ray Charles, Jesse J) Richie Stevens (Pete Docherty). Other members of the band would be some fellow students from the ICMP such as Russel Smith, Mike Newman, James Mills and Phil De Hovre.
One of the perks of playing with The Caped Crusaders was at the time Vince Power was running the Hop Farm music festival and he would often put bands on at the festival that would play in his bar. Vince used to run an empire of music venues around the UK including the Academy’s and Reading festival under the Mean Fiddler. So he had a lot of experience in the music industry. One year we got to see Prince play down at the festival for free!
A typical Caped Crusader gig would consist of two 45 minute sets of funk, soul and blues classics. Some of the songs I can remember were Grandma’s Hands, 110th Street, Use Me, Sissy Strutt, Let’s Stay Together, California Dreamin’ & The Thrill Is Gone.
Here’s a video of the band from YouTube. I’m not playing in this one but it gives you the vibe of the place.