The Wurzels are a country institution – not many people don’t know the lyrics to ‘Combine Harvester’ – and they are returning to perform at one of their favourite shows: the Royal Bath & West Show this summer. In an interview with band member Tommy Banner, he described how he came to started off with the band.

Tommy said: "I’m not originally from Somerset – I was born eight miles outside Edinburgh. At school they used to take the mickey out of me for my country accent, so I fitted in quite easily with the Wurzels when I moved down. It was only meant to be for three months; 51 years later I’m still here. But it was a bit of a culture shock: I’d been playing on cruise ships and the band I was with wore made-to-measure Italian suits or full tails. Then I came down and was handed a pair of cords, wellies, a farmer’s working shirt and twine – to tie below your knees to stop creepy crawlies climbing up".

When asked how many times the band had played ‘Combine Harvester’, Tommy replied: "I don’t think my memory goes back that far! We once tried to leave it out of the play list and we got slated for it – we haven’t done that again".

Tommy says that visitors to the Bath & West show can expect: "A good time! We’ve performed in the sheep shearing pavilion loads of times, and it’s a great atmosphere. I love the Show, and often come on other days just to look round. We performed there in 1976 when we reached number one in the charts with ‘Combine Harvester’. We had a van which you could blast music from, and we managed to get into the Grand Parade of livestock in the main ring – we never heard the end of that!

We last performed at the Show around ten years ago, so it will be great to be back. I could probably do shout-outs to plenty of people in the crowd as we used to come every year. It’ll be a lovely thing to look forward to".

The Royal Bath & West Show will be held on 29 May – 1 June. More information here