Chicken Shack on DeBaser: British blues rock reviews and essentials

The Profile

Chicken Shack are a British blues-rock band formed in the mid-1960s and led by guitarist/vocalist Stan Webb. Early member Christine Perfect (later Christine McVie) contributed vocals and piano before joining Fleetwood Mac. Key albums include 40 Blue Fingers (1968), Accept (1970) and Unlucky Boy (1973).

Debut LP released in 1968 on Blue Horizon. Accept (1970) was their final Blue Horizon album and the last with the original lineup. Unlucky Boy (1973) featured Bob Daisley (bass) and Paul Hancox (drums) with guests Tony Ashton (piano) and Chris Mercer (sax). The band originated from Stourbridge.

Three reviews chart Chicken Shack’s path from the Blue Horizon debut to early-’70s grit. The pieces spotlight Stan Webb’s leadership, the Christine Perfect era, and later collaborators like Bob Daisley, Tony Ashton and Chris Mercer. Albums covered: 40 Blue Fingers (1968), Accept (1970) and Unlucky Boy (1973). Overall tone: enthusiastic, detail-rich, and very pro-Webb.

Notable Quotes

❝ Accept is the fourth and final work by Chicken Shack under Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon label and the last with the original lineup.

❝ If there is one Chicken Shack album that must be listened to with particular attention, it is undoubtedly "40 Blue Fingers", to which I assign four stars considering two factors: the importance of the group in the historical evolution of British Blues and its ability to suggest alternative and partly original paths, even within the substantial adherence to the classic (and indispensable) twelve-bar model.

❝ Side B opens with "Unlucky Boy," another key track of the entire album (a re-adaptation of the original "Unlucky Girl" by Big Mama Thornton), with sax and guitar in the spotlight, rock blues at its best, I would say.