Tag Archives: Mud

Live review: Mud at the Factory Live, Worthing 20/12/24

Glam rock, Live reviews, Rock music, , , , ,

Thanks to a run of unforgettable festive hits during the period 1973-74, glam rock has been an integral part of the traditional British Christmas ever since. And apart from one year during the Covid pandemic, a trip to see a ‘70s glam rock chart-topper (whether that be Sweet, Slade or, ahem, Gary Glitter) has been an annual Christmas ritual for me pretty much every single year since I was a teenager back in the early ’80s.

But with Andy Scott’s Sweet not touring the south-east year, Dave Hill’s Slade not touring at all and Gary Glitter safely locked away in prison, it almost looked like it being a glam-free Christmas for me this year. But then a friend messaged me with the news that Mud were playing Worthing this year. Featuring the two surviving original members, Rob Davis and Ray Stiles, I would get my glam Christmas gig after all!

Taking the stage at the small but packed-out Factory Live venue, Ray Stiles began by paying tribute to the memories of the two who are no longer with us, Les Gray and Dave Mount. I’d seen Les Gray’s version of Mud back in the 90s, and I’d seen his former backing band doing their own Mud tribute many times over the years, but this would be my first time seeing Stiles and Davis together on stage.

Stiles (who has enjoyed a solid, almost four-decade career as bass player with the Hollies) takes on the frontman role in the rebooted Mud. As well as Davis on guitar, the glam-era connection is further underlined with the Glitter Band’s Pete Phipps on drums; alongside Stiles’ long-time Hollies band-mate, Ian Parker, on keyboards and veteran guitarist, Keith Read, providing additional guitar and vocals.

Ray Stiles

Things get off to a storming start with a rendition of Stiles and Davis self-penned ‘L-L-Lucy’ before we get a blast of Mud’s first three Chinn and Chapman hits: ‘Crazy’, ‘Hipnosis’ and the always-brilliant ‘Dynamite’. There’s no shortage, either, of the glam-themed remakes of those vintage rock and roll standards that Mud became famed for, songs like ‘One Night’ and ‘Oh Boy’. For the latter we are treated to a guest spot from Liquid Gold’s Ellie Hope who reprised her role on the original 1975 single, where she duetted with Les Gray.

As well as delivering his signature pounding beat throughout the set, Pete Phipps also gets his moment in the spotlight when he is invited to deliver the lead vocal on a glamtastic cover of the Glitter Band’s own smash single, ‘Angel Face’.

Mud’s brief dalliance with disco also gets a look-in with a rendition of their 1976 hit, ‘Shake Down’. For the benefit of anyone at all who may have been unaware, this gives Stiles the chance to point to Davis’s post-Mud career as a mega-successful songwriter, writing dance anthems. We get a short blast of Kylie’s ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ over the PA just to prove the point.

Rob Davis

Though less familiar, and clearly nowhere as lucrative, Stiles is also keen to highlight aspects of his own post-Mud career. He introduces his wife Anne on stage to perform a couple of numbers from their corporate covers band days. In fine voice she delivers soulful-sounding covers of ‘Love Is a Battlefield’ and ‘Play That Funky Music’.

Then we’re back to more classic-era Mud with rocking renditions of ‘Cut Across Shorty’, ‘Rocket’ and ‘The Cat Crept In’. We’re coming to the end by now. There’s only time for two more songs. Everyone knows exactly what there going to be and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

First, Stiles puts on his best Les-Gray-Does-an-Impression-of-Elvis voice to deliver a glorious sing-along ‘Lonely This Christmas’. How wonderful to be hearing Mud perform this live on the fiftieth anniversary of the very week it was the Christmas number 1 – I felt quite emotional, even with all the daft ventriloquist dummy antics on stage reprising Les Gray’s iconic Top of The Pops appearance.

 Then we are all invited to give a hearty yell of ‘Yaaaaaaaaaaaay’ and it’s time for a barnstorming, rip-roaring rendition of ‘Tiger Feet’, one of the biggest hits of 1974 and one of the best songs of the entire glam era. What a wonderful evening and thank you Ray and Rob for taking us all back to the days of Mud Rock.

Meeting Rob
Meeting Ray
Signed gig poster

Related posts:

Before glam: the debut 60s singles of Bowie, Bolan, Slade, Mud and Sweet

Slade, strikes and the three-day week: the story of the greatest Christmas record ever made

Live review: We Love The 70s at Butlins, Bognor Regis 13-15 September 2024

Before glam: the debut 60s singles of Bowie, Bolan, Slade, Mud and Sweet

Glam rock, Music culture & history, Rock music, , , , , ,

When glam rock burst into the UK pop charts in the early 1970s the genre may have appeared all shiny and new and suitably outrageous but many of its lead players had been trying to make their all-important breakthrough in the previous decade. Five of the acts we look at here all released their debut singles in the mid to late 60s.

Bowie – 1964

David Bowie’s debut single ‘Liza Jane’ which was released under the name Davie Jones & the King Bees and was recorded at Decca Studios in West Hampstead in May 1964 but released on the Vocalion Pop label. Although producer Leslie Conn is credited as the composer the song is an arrangement of an old standard ‘Li’l Liza Jane’ which dates back to at least the 1910s. Bowie released two more singles the following year under the names The Manish Boys and Davy Jones & the Lower Third but his first release using the name David Bowie was his 1966 single ‘Can’t Help Thinking About Me’ which was released as David Bowie & the Lower Third. Bowie’s next single, ‘Do Anything You Say’ released that same year was the first credited solely to David Bowie. Bowie release four more singles and a debut album prior to his first success chart success in 1969 with the single ‘Space Oddity’ which reached number five.

Bolan – 1965

Marc Bolan’s debut ‘The Wizard’ was released by Decca in 1965. “I sounded like Dylan,” Bolan later admitted in an interview. Mark Paytress in ‘Bolan – The Rise and Fall of a 20th Century Superstar’ takes up the story: “On the morning of September 14th 1965 Mike Leander, Jim Economides, Mark Pruskin and Marc Bolan congregated in Decca’s Broadhurst Gardens studios in West Hampstead. A small backing orchestra, comprising string section and pop instruments, and The Ladybirds vocal group were briefed and awaited further instructions from Leander. It was ten in the morning and everyone knew the session would be over by lunchtime.” When it failed to make its mark on the charts a couple more solo singles followed after which their was a stint in John’s Children. Bolan then enjoyed modest success in the underground acoustic duo Tyrannosaurus Rex before shortening the name, expanding the personnel, turning up the amps and hitting glam rock superstardom.

Slade – 1966

Recording as the N’ Betweens prior to changing their name firstly to Ambrose Slade and then Slade, Noddy Holder, Jim Lea, Dave Hill and Don Powell made their debut single in 1966. ‘You Better Run’ released by Columbia was a cover of a song by US band The Young Rascalls. Ian Edmondson & Chris Selby in ‘The Slade Discography’ take up the story: “Visiting American record producer Kim Fowley saw something in them that he liked and decided to to approach them with a view to recording some music. Fowley was what was referred to in those days as a ‘freak’. This was a combination of his height and his way out American dress style and attitude. He was fond of calling his records ‘Instant Productions’. This seemed to be mainly because he didn’t waste a lot of time and money on recording.” ‘You Better Run’ sold exceptionally well in Wolverhampton but failed to sell many copies elsewhere. Several more singles and two albums would follow until the band hit the UK Top 20 with ‘Get Down and Get With It’ in 1971.

Mud – 1967

Mud released their debut single ‘Flower Power’ on CBS in 1967, a song written by the band’s guitarist Rob Davis. Several more flop singles would follow until Mud hit the charts with ‘Crazy’ six years later, after they were signed to Mickie Most’s Rak label and enjoyed the fruits of the Chinn-Chapman songwriting team. Even at this early stage, however, three-quarters of the classic Mud line-up are already in place: Les Gray, Rob Davis, Ray Stiles. Drummer, Dave Mount, would join a year later. The band worked the social clubs of Surrey whilst continuing with their day jobs, Les Gray recalling in an interview: “We would do anything because we wanted to work.” Before finding their glam-meets-rock n roll-revivalist niche they hit us with this wonderful bit of psychedelic kitsch silliness.

The Sweet – 1968

The Sweet’s debut single ‘Slow Motion’, a song written by Wolverhampton pianist Dave Watkins, was released in July 1968 on Fontana. Set to be released under their original name The Sweetshop the band’s name was hurriedly shortened when they discovered another band had been using the same name. At the time of their debut three quarters of the band’s classic line-up, Brian Connolly, Steve Priest and Mick Tucker are already in place. Guitarist Andy Scott would join two years later in 1970. Produced by Phil Wainman, who would go on to produce the band’s hit singles during the glam era, ‘Slow Motion’ is a long way away from Blockbuster! and Ballroom Blitz but at the same time not a million miles away from the string of bubblegum hits (Funny Funny, Co-Co, Poppa Joe et al) that the band had before hitting their stride with a rocked-up glam sound.

Book: The Sweet in the 1970s

If you enjoyed reading this my book ‘The Sweet In The 1970s’ is out on 30th July 2021.

Details here

Related posts:

‘The Sweet in the 1970s’ by Darren Johnson – published 30th July 2021

The Sweet versus Bowie: the riff in Blockbuster and Jean Genie – origins and influences

Slade, strikes and the three-day week: the story of the greatest Christmas record ever made

From AC/DC to ABBA: five classic glam rock singles by non-glam bands

Lost In Space: interview with former Slade legend Jim Lea

Interview with Andy Scott ahead of Sweet’s 2019 UK winter tour