Flicky Harrison looks at the highs and lows of Americana singer's journey

LIONEL Lodge, singer/songwriter and former member of Americana band, The Corndogs, is returning to the UK for the first time in a number of years.

He tried to bring his band, Schragged Out, to Swindon back in 2015, but a catalogue of disasters mean’t he had to cancel, so now he is trying again - this time on Friday, April 13!

Lionel said: “Last time, one week before leaving for Swindon, the accordionist had a heart attack, and then two days before leaving the bass player slipped on a stage and ripped all the ligaments in his leg.’’

With just two band members left, having set off for the 13-hour drive from Vienna to Swindon, something went wrong with the clutch system of Lionel’s car.

He said: “The damage was so extensive that the few hours it should take to replace the clutch turned into a week of parts ordering and rebuilding. This time we are flying and renting a car.’’

Joining Lionel on this trip is Franz Haselsteiner, one of the top piano/accordion players in Europe. The singer has notched up 12 solo albums, the latest, Human Heart, was recorded in 2016 in Austria and Canada.

Lionel not only writes for himself and the band but for numerous other artists. “I really love this, it’s like each song is a little puzzle that needs to be figured out and balanced. It’s like it has a face but when it comes to me the face is blurred and the features are not clear, I work at bringing it into focus, defining its shape and attitude,’’ he said.

Lionel was born in Scotland but his family emigrated when he was just a boy to Canada, where he grew up. He now lives in Vienna but performs all over the world.

Lionel started writing when he was just four-years-old, rewriting the lyrics to a song by The Rolling Stones. He learned to play saxophone and piano from the age of 10 and continued writing poems and short stories.

When he was 19, Lionel formed his first band, The Catch, along with his brothers, Brodie Lodge and Jeff Kennedy. Lionel moved from Ontario to Toronto and the band was remodelled and renamed a couple of times until it became The Corndogs. They signed to Latent Recordings with distribution by BMG Canada in 1990. In 1992 Lionel moved to England and set up a full electric band, which he toured in the UK and Europe, before moving to Vienna in 1997. In 2003 Lionel performed in the Ukraine at the Kiev concert hall with a chamber orchestra and five-piece band.

His songs are lyric-led, storytelling in the Americana rock genre, but with a soupcon of Celtic flavour. He will be singing a mix of his own songs and a few ‘choice songs’ by other people when he comes to Swindon.

His first album Man Games was recorded in Toronto in 1990 while She’s No Game and Sister were recorded in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Lionel’s gig at the Beehive begins at 8.30pm and is free entry. For more details of the band visit http://www.lionellodge.ca/ or the gig visit http://bee-hive.co.uk/ - Flicky Harrison