The Kursaal Flyers flew out of Southend in the mid-1970s and racked up one hit single in Britain. Little Does She Know reached number 14 in 1976. FOZ : What's the thinking behind your new project? PAUL : My former Kursaal Flyer band mate Vic Collins and I have known each other since the late sixties. I was in a progressive rock band in Southend with Will Birch and Graeme Douglas called Surly Bird. I was sharing a flat with another member of the band Dave Murdoch who's the chap who wrote "Speedway" and he was really into the West Coast stuff. He came home one day with a copy of The Byrds' "Sweetheart Of the Rodeo" album and I absolutely fell in love with that album, so much so that I sold all my records so that I could go out and buy that and other records of the same ilk, one of which was "The Gilded Palace Of Sin" by The Flying Burrito Brothers. Fired up by this I decided this was the sort of music I wanted to play and left Surly Bird to form a new group called Cow Pie. That was back in 1969 and we had some good times and made quite a name for ourselves locally. Eventually we became The Kursaal Flyers and then years later, a couple of years ago, I bumped into Vic on a petrol station forecourt and we got chatting about the old days and we both said how it would be great to play all that old country rock stuff again. So we decided to form a new band just for fun really. FOZ : And you used an old Kursaal Flyers song title as the name for the group. PAUL : Yes, the "Ugly Guys" track which features the line "the pretty faces came and went but the ugly guys played on and on and on". Seeing that we're all a bit long in the tooth we thought that would be an ideal name for us so we became The Ugly Guys. FOZ : So in many ways Paul you've come full circle musically speaking. PAUL : Absolutely. I'm playing a lot of the same songs that I was back in the late sixties and early seventies but hopefully played a bit better! A bit more experience and know how I hope but played with the same spirit. FOZ : And how have you been going down? PAUL : It's absolutely amazing. Locally we have a job to get booked for speeding but when we go to London we pack everywhere we play. It's amazing, there's a whole scene in London that still thinks it's 1972. It's all country rock and Americana with some more recent bands as well like Counting Crows and Ryan Adams. Most of the people who come to see us must have been kids when we were doing this first time around but they know all the songs!  | | Dr Feelgood |
FOZ : Who else is in the band alongside yourself and Vic? PAUL : Our guitarist Steve Oliver had a country rock band in Barking at the same time as our Cow Pie days. In fact when things weren't going so well in Cow Pie Vic and I auditioned for a place in his group but it never came to anything. By sheer coincidence he's just moved out to South Woodham Ferrers and we remembered him and we asked him to come on board to form the nucleus of our new band. We then set about finding a rhythm section and thought the drummer's got to be Bob Clouter who's played with Mickey Jupp and toured with Flaco Jimenez. He's also been in other bands with Vic including Against The Grain so he was the obvious choice as drummer but we didn't know a bass player. Kevin Morris from the Feelgoods gave me the name of Mike Steed. I sent Mike a CD of all the stuff and he loved it so he said yes. He's a brilliant bass player, one of the most melodic I ever heard. He's also an incredible piano player as well. So here we are in 2005 having a lot of fun and really looking forward to opening for our old mates in Ipswich a few days before Xmas. FOZ : So how does it feel to be fronting a country rock band again? PAUL : I love it. When we're up in London it gets quite emotional for me. I've always loved all these songs. We're not trying to be clever. We're almost like a tribute band. We're not writing all our own songs, we're just playing stuff we love. It's a great buzz going back to London, back to the sort of places where The Kursaals made their name. Prior to their Ipswich debut The Ugly Guys will be playing live on Foz's Drivetime show. Hear them on Monday 19th December from 6pm to 6-30pm. By the way tickets for the Smokestack Christmas bash at The Manor are available from The Ipswich Record And Tape Exchange in Upper Orwell Street (01473 230207) or by calling the Smokestack hotline 01449 774706. Have a wonderful Christmas and here's to a wonderful 2006. | 
