Late June and early July are dominated by the Wimbledon tennis championships in the U.K. This is what some people think of when Wimbledon is mentioned: well-heeled spectators, members of the Royal Family and celebrities, tourists consuming the traditional dish of strawberries and cream, and athletes like Andy Murray winning the finals (or John McEnroe throwing a tantrum back in the day).
Other people think of—and will immediately start singing about—Wombles.
In the 1970s, years before Ferngully or the movie version of The Lorax, children’s favorite friends of the Earth were Wombles. They were eco-friendly characters from a series of books by British writer Elisabeth Beresford, who invented the stories to entertain her young daughters during walks on Wimbledon Common. Beresford came from a literary family as the daughter of novelist J.D. Beresford, who was a huge influence on Graham Greene. As a child she knew H. G. Wells, D. H. Lawrence, C. S. Lewis, Somerset Maugham and Walter De La Mare.
Beresford’s fictional community of brown and grey furry creatures, who resembled friendly-looking moles or rats, lived on Wimbledon Common, where they picked up the litter left by slovenly humans, recycling what they found into useful items. The stories’ plots didactically promoted the “reuse-reclaim-recycle” message to youngsters, which was still a new, not very widespread idea in the early 1970s.
The downside was that a few children deliberately hid trash on Wimbledon Common for the Wombles to find or in the hopes of running into their favorite Womble. The first short stop-action Wombles episodes were immediately popular, and the segments were occasionally shown in the U.S. on Captain Kangaroo.
Britons who may not have known more than one verse of “God Save The Queen” (the national anthem, not the Sex Pistols’ song) can still sing all the words to “The Wombling Song” and “Remember You’re A Womble” well into their forties and fifties.
Composer and producer Mike Batt told me in 2002 how he became involved in the show:
In 1974 The Wombles were the biggest selling act in the U.K. It all came about by my being hired to do the music for this little TV series, five minutes long, that the BBC did. These funny little puppet things being stop-animated into rather twee adventures picking up litter on Wimbledon Common. Instead of getting the £200 fee for it, I asked if I could have the character rights to the music. That was worth nothing, because there was no band or anything, so they gave me that instead. Then when I made a record just using my own money, because in those days I used to use whatever money I had as a not-very-well-off songwriter, ex-star, freckled producer from a record company, now on his own trying to make a name and get a hit. The way I used to do it was by spending that week’s rent on a record or several weeks’ rent, and then hoping that I could sell it to a record company before the landlord chucked me out of my flat.
We did the Wombles stuff, three songs per session, which was standard in those days, for that kind of work. So I would just put out the music, having written it probably the night before, and they’d play it. When the first record was made, there was just one song, ‘The Wombling Song.’ It languished in my briefcase for a good six months. I managed to avoid being kicked out of my flat long enough to make another record, which must have paid the bills for a while. Then I happened to be in the offices of a particular record executive at CBS and offered it to him for almost no money, and he took it on the spot, and put it out. I then got into a Womble costume, which my mother made for me, because I couldn’t even get an appointment with the managing directory of the record company, a guy called Dick Asher, an American guy. The way I knew to get into his office was to wear this Womble costume… Then when the record started being a success, with Chris [Spedding] having just been a session man on it, I needed a band. The drummer and all my rhythm section guys were far too expensive for me to even ring them up and ask them if they wanted to do promotion outside. I wouldn’t even think that they’d be available. So I rang some friends of mine who were in a band [Steeleye Span], and they became The Wombles.
The show’s theme song, “The Wombling Song,” was an enormous success, followed by “Remember You’re a Womble,” “Keep On Wombling,” “Minueta Allegreto,” and “SuperWomble.”
Wombles session drummer Clem Cattini said:
Some of [The Wombles records] I liked. I didn’t know what it was for. I mean, we didn’t know what the Wombles was about at that time, but I liked it. Some of it was very good.
Les Hurdle, Wombles session bassist, said:
The Wombles were a hoot. I remember turning up for the gig and thinking, ‘What are we doing making these rock type tracks for some kids’ show?’ What a breakthrough!
Musically The Wombles were similar to The Archies or Banana Splits in America, where it seemed like every children’s show spawned hit records. The use of the word “womble” for various parts of speech was similar to how the word “smurf” was used in the 1980’s Smurfs cartoon.
Guitarist hero Chris Spedding enjoyed working with Mike on The Wombles records, and however much ribbing he received about the gig – such as Steve Jones bringing it up with him on his radio show Jonesy’s Jukebox in 2005 as though it were some deep, dark secret – he made no apology whatsoever for playing pop music aimed at children and adolescents.
Spedding wrote in 1995 for a Japanese fanzine, Guitar Graffiti:
There were many big selling records I did anonymously. And I was supposed to keep quiet about it. Mostly groups that the public were supposed to think were playing on their own records but weren’t. But there was one group I felt I could mention… The press reacted at first with disbelief. They seemed to think I was too respectable a musician to do such a thing. They were wrong. They were also being terrible snobs. The Wombles records were superbly crafted pieces of work and I was proud of my part in them. And they were also big hits. Bigger than some of the records I was publicly credited with playing on…
At this remove in time much of my ‘70s session work blurs into one big hazy session in my memory, but one sequence of events does stick in my mind. Mike booked me at Wessex Studios in North London for two sessions to happen on two consecutive Mondays. I remember little about the first session except that we cut some Wombles songs. But on the following Monday as I was driving from Wimbledon (yes, I lived in Wimbledon – get over it!) to the studio I flipped on the radio and they were playing one of the Womble songs we’d cut only the previous Monday. That was how fast things were happening in those days. The DJ was saying it was selling so well it would probably appear in the Top Ten when the figures were out alter in the week. And of course it did. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, Mike’s really on a roll here!’ When I got to the studio everyone was really excited and rearing to go and we couldn’t help but cut another hit for Mike!
One thing should be pointed out to silence anybody who might still look down on those Womble records. Every music fan fondly remembers the first time they became aware of music as a child. The first record they owned that maybe their parents bought for them. Now there must be countless young adult music fans around today whose first fond musical memory was of a Wombles song. That is something to be proud of.
He told Mojo in 2001:
I only recall appearing on Top of the Pops [as a Womble] once… You couldn’t play an instrument in those costumes! They were so hot and smelly from previous wearers that I got out of it as soon as I could. We never learnt any dance moves for these shows. I was just told to move around as much as possible. During these performances there was ample opportunity for us to ogle cute young teenage girls through those eye holes. They couldn’t see the leering rock musician inside. In fact, a pretty young girl once peered into my eye holes and whispered, ‘I love you, Womble!’ I did a little Womble dance in response, but if only she knew…
Mike Batt laughed:
Of course, [the girls] thought they were looking at these lovely, cuddly Wombles that were just playing pop music for them, but in fact there were these lecherous session men who were drooling from inside the costumes.
Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock recalled during an interview in 2002:
I remember sitting in Malcolm McLaren’s shop watching the telly and Top of the Pops was on [in 1975], and Chris was in The Wombles. Not only was he in the Wombles but he played a Gibson Flying V and he had the leather biker’s cap on that he’d got from Malcolm’s shop, so we were cheering him on. At the moment it was kind of naff, but he was cool at the same time. If you didn’t know, you didn’t know, but if you knew, you knew, and we were in on the joke.
Batt reunited The Wombles to perform on the Avalon stage at the brutally hot 2011 Glastonbury Festival in front of an enthusiastic crowd, many of whom were sporting Wombles masks. As always the band was wearing costumes created by Batt’s mother, Elaine Bryson Batt, who passed away this summer. Glastonbury boss (and curmudgeon) Michael Eavis blamed an underling for booking The Wombles without consulting him and opined that it was a huge mistake. Mike Batt jokingly threatened to withdraw The Wombles’ services in cleaning up the festival site when it was over. The BBC did not broadcast their set, but it is now available on the Wombles’ official YouTube channel.
Aside from The Wombles, Mike Batt has had an amazing career, composing musicals and soundtracks, running his own music label, Dramatico, producing other artists, discovering, managing, and writing songs for his protégée Katie Melua. He is now involved in new Wombles ventures. Bloomsbury Publishing has reissued Elisabeth Beresford’s original novels and Batt has sorted out the rights to future Wombles projects with Beresford’s estate. In fact, he has plans for two 26-part television series, a movie and an online “Wombles World” experience.
The Wombles on ‘Top of the Pops’ in 1974. (Guitar geek side note: “Wellington Womble” is usually shown in photos and videos playing a Gibson Flying V but Spedding actually used a Les Paul on The Wombles records.)