Band Ade; Jade Wright meets the comic turned folk star.

Byline: Jade Wright

ADE Edmondson is no longer an actor. Or a comedian. He's now a punk folk star, and he blames it all on a chance encounter one drunken afternoon down a London side street.

"I'd been for Christmas lunch with some very old friends," he explains. "And somehow I bought a mandolin by accident."

Like you do...

"I just couldn't put it down, much to the annoyance of my wife and children," he laughs.

Ade, 51, has been married to comedienne Jennifer Saunders for 23 years, and the pair have three grown-up daughters.

"Everything I played sounded great. Well, to me anyway. I'd drunk a lot, so I don't really remember buying it, but I remember being in the music shop. It's my favourite object in the world now. I wouldn't be parted from it."

So now the former Bottom and Young Ones star has formed a band with some old pals - the Bad Shepherds - described as punk folk anarchy, and they take to the roads this month for their debut outing.

But as a man who made his name so successfully in comedy, when he announced that he was about to leave BBC1 hit show Holby City and embark upon a full-time career in music, the great British public could be forgiven for the sneaking suspicion that a major wind-up was under way.

Further ammunition arrived when he announced the band would be performing "folked up" versions of punk rock songs, and the smart consensus was that we were about to witness a re-run of the famous Bad News episode from the Channel 4 series The Comic Strip Presents.

That show was a parody of every heavy metal cliche ever invented, though Bad News eventually metamorphosed into a real life band and even appeared at Donington festival where they relentlessly mocked the insanities of the metal world in one of its own great cathedrals of worship.

But Ade assures me there'll be no heavy metal this time. He says it's all about punk and folk - an unusual combination of genres.

"My music knowledge comes from punk and new wave," says Ade. "I've always liked folk. So it made sense to mix the two.

"I loved the songs from 76-82. I was 19 in 1976 when punk arrived. Those songs were the soundtrack to my life as I went through uni and started pretending to be a comedian. I loved the noise, the faces and the attitude."

He's particularly looking forward to coming to Merseyside.

"My sister lived in New Brighton, so I know Liverpool and the Wirral very well," he says. "I remember walking down Mathew Street, seeing where the Cavern used to be. It's a shame they knocked that old place down."

Ade says he's been in and out of bands for as long as he can remember.

"I was in school boy bands, but then I think everyone was in those days. Never anything serious.

"I grew up in the days of punk.

You had to be in a band.

"I loved making music and got my first guitar when I was 13, along the way I've picked up 10 other guitars, a banjo, a ukulele, two trumpets, a banjolele, a mandolin, an autoharp, a charanga, two pianos, a tenor guitar, a triangle and even made myself some coconuts (made strangely enough, from a coconut). I also love folk music, I love the noise - live it's the most exciting music to be in the same room with. It occurred to me that punk was the folk music of its day."

So expect folked up versions of punk classics such as I Fought The Law, London Calling, Teenage Kicks and God Save The Queen amongst others. An album is in the pipeline, due to be recorded later this year, with a release date at some point in 2009.

Ade is backed by a folk super group of experienced world class performers.

Maartin Allcock was a vocalist with Fairport Convention before joining Jethro Tull, while Troy Donockley whistles with a host of rock and folk bands as diverse as Nightwish, Maddy Prior and Midge Ure. And the band is completed by rising Irish fiddle-player Eimear Bradley.

"I was nervous about approaching any of them," laughs Ade. "They're proper folk musicians. I said to my friend, 'I can't ring Troy - he'll laugh at me'.

But I caved in and rang him, and the others, in the end. And to my surprise, they all agreed.

"We've been having proper rehearsals. We're a proper band.

"I'd like to make this my big job from now on, so to speak. I've spoken to Jennifer about it, and I'd like to give it a go."

So you don't want to go back to acting or comedy in the future?

"It's possible, I'd never say never, but certainly not for now."

Ade Edmondson & the Bad Shepherds play Live Lounge at Baby Blue on Sunday, December 14. Tickets: pounds 15 adv/pounds 17 door through the Liverpool Echo Arena on the

ACC Live Hotline on 0844 8000 410 (Mon-Sat 9am-9pm and Sun 10am-4pm) or online at: www.accliverpool.com

CAPTION(S):

VERY HEAVY METAL: Adrian as Vyvyan in The Young Ones; BOTTOM'S UP: Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson as Richie and Eddie; PUNK FOLK: Adrian Edmondson is now a Bad Shepherd