Watershed: Al Shalliker, songwriter extraordinaire

Al Shalliker, songwriter and guitarist extraordinaire, and the main man behind the awesome Plymouth reggae band Watershed, has finally found us and been in touch. We’ve been hoping this would happen for years!

Watershed were a truly awesome reggae, soul, funk and psychedelic band. They formed at the end of the 1980s and enjoyed a long odyssey, releasing numerous albums and EPs and playing countless shows across the whole length and breadth of the uk.

Now Al is working on a second solo album and trying to find the best way to post the old Watershed material to the worldwide web. Apparently he still has plenty of it! Naturally we are absolutely delighted to learn this.

Wud Records is going to try to help Al to digitally distribute his awesome collection of Watershed material to all the major streaming platforms.

We plan to create new pages for the various Watershed albums, EPs and live recordings. They will appear in Watershed’s pages right here in the Archives section of the Wud Records website. Exciting times ahead!

One of the greatest musical treasures we can imagine is still in Al‘s possession. When we knew him and Watershed the best, around 1990-91, Al used to keep a box of cassettes under his bed. They were all bootlegs of Watershed, recorded straight off the desk from live shows. Every show was recorded, so there were many cassettes. They were later catalogued by the band’s keyboard player, Dave Gregory.

Dave sadly passed away in 2013. What an extraordinary and eccentric character he was. Softly spoken, always kind, a gentle man and a gentleman. He read a degree in music from Bristol University, where he majored in violin and piano. His deep knowledge of music made him an absolute joy to jam with. Rest in peace, Dave. :(

A few years ago we uploaded Watershed’s wonderful Life, Times and Dreams EP to SoundCloud, along with the final quarter of a live show they performed on xmas eve in 1990.

We always feel very cheeky when uploading other people’s music without asking their permission first. So far, happily, every single one of them has been very pleased about discovering themselves at our website!

Recently we discovered that Al Shalliker, songwriter and guitarist extraordinaire, had released a solo album of his songs. They sound completely different to anything Watershed ever did.

If you enjoy singer songwriter acoustic treasures, you will love Al’s solo album very much. With its minimal production and Al‘s razor sharp lyrics, it’s a tremendous listen.

Several of its tracks are longlisted for inclusion in future Musical Discoveries compilations.

You can enjoy hearing the Silver Linings album at Al’s website and order a copy on CD or vinyl from there as well. Simply click here and his website will open in a new tab.

This new Watershed archiving project is still in its infancy and there is a long way to go. Al is searching for a local DAT machine at present. We shall bring you news of further developments via our News service, and on social media such as Twitter/X, BlueSky and Mastodon. Make sure you follow us there to keep up to date.

If you would like to read all about Watershed and see some video and links for them, please click here.

To enjoy the atmosphere and music of a live Watershed show, please click here.

If you’d like to listen to Watershed’s fantastic Life, Times and Dreams EP, please click here.

To order a copy of Al’s awesome Silver Linings album, please click here.