Born 6th May 1942, at Bearsted Memorial Hospital, Hampton Court, Middlesex.

Education - Work pre music; Paper rounds, 13-16. Most of the time, I silently recited JERRY LEE LEWIS songs while delivering the papers, I got so proficient that I could end them almost to the second of the original! It also eased the monotony. Two months before leaving school, I discovered a living could be made in commercial art. Previously, I was told that the Army or the Police would be a good idea by the school advisers. I decided against these options.

I sent off literally scores of letters to London commercial art studios (starting at A in the phone directory). Adproduction Ltd, off Bond Street, was the positive result of all this effort, and I became a junior artist. The premises were only a few hundred yards from the HMV Oxford Street record store, and every lunch hour was spent listening to my musical heroes, JERRY LEE LEWIS, CARL PERKINS, JOHNNY CASH, etc, and discovering new ones like MUDDY WATERS, especially his pianist OTIS SPANN, HANK WILLIAMS, CHUCK BERRY, HOWLIN' WOLF, etc.

Music - When I was 18, I decided I had to learn the piano; we had (and my parents still have it) a piano at home, and my father played pub style, all the tunes of the 30's and 40's at parties and Saturday nights, etc. But I had to learn my rock'n roll. I bought myself a chord chart, and got the left hand going. I had three lessons, all with different people and decided that they couldn't teach me what I wanted to learn, the last lesson by a lady in North London did teach me the 'jazz scales' which is the basis of blues playing, and for that I'm very grateful to her. I figured however, that most of the people whose music I loved probably learnt by watching and listening to the people they admired, so I did it that way, playing along as best I could to records. I also remember playing along with Ray, DICK HOW, DAVE HUTCHINS and brother Roger at a pub in Staines - so that was my first gig, when I got married at 21, Ray and his band played at my wedding reception, and went down a lot better than the 'dance band' who shared the stage. All this time, I had been getting on earning a living as a commercial artist, and when I was 25, did the artwork for the cover and insert for THE BEATLES, 'SGT.PEPPER' album, meeting and discussing the project with the designer and artist PETER BLAKE. It was around this time I decided that commercial art was no longer for me. There was a big campaign to help starving people (I believe Biafra) and when I saw all these various art directors squabbling about which horrendous photo should be used for this or that ad, then changing their minds, etc, etc and of course, they were still getting very well paid for these arguments, and you knew the money came from ordinary people paying into the Charity fund to help, as they imagined, these pitiful souls in Africa - I got out!

I was now playing regularly in my first band. Ray had rang me after the break-up of his previous group, CAMINO REAL, which had DAVE HUTCHINS on bass and my brother, Roger on drums. Roger left to join the SAVOY BROWN BLUES BAND, after narrowly missing out on joining JIMI HENDRIX! I went to the auditions in a club in St.James, there was Jimi, CHAS CHANDLER (his manager), ERIC BURDON and the other guys from THE ANIMALS, except ALAN PRICE. Hendrix just played and various drummers played along including Roger, who was told he had the job if MITCH MITCHELL decided not to join. The rest is history! I later saw the 'Experience' and CREAM at their first gigs at the Marquee Club. Hendrix was fantastic, I'd never seen or heard anything like it, but I did prefer CREAM mainly because their music was more traditional, especially early on. The other band I saw regularly was CYRIL DAVIES ALL-STARS, and for me, they were the best, especially when they had CARLO LITTLE on drums and NICKY HOPKINS on piano. I later heard an album by Nicky, and it was dreadful! All strings and massive orchestrations, no blues, no rock'n roll, yuk! It's the sort of thing that happens when middle-of-the-road record company 'execs' think they know best.

Anyway, Ray and I got together a traditional rock'n roll band. It was during this period that we did the album for Saga Records ('IT'S HARD ROCK & ALL THAT') and actually got paid £60 for each of the sessions, no thanks to our then agent who tried to grab the money! The record was no audio delight, mainly due to recording equipment being driven by batteries! MARCEL RODD, head of Saga and a charming old gentleman, probably had a few words with his A & R people after we had laid down 'MIGHTY MAN' and some other tracks at a later date and they rejected them, only to hear them come out on the first Dawn album!

Sometime in 1968, our bass player DAVE HUTCHINS decided to leave. He also owned the Transit. Ray and I got together and in talking things over, realised we both had a great interest in country blues & jug band music. We decided to get together with JOE RUSH, washboard & traps player and double bass thumper. We started by doing a gig at the Northumberland Arms, Isleworth. It worked, so we kept at it. Some months later, we played at Oxford University Ball; we had two spots, one early evening to get everyone in, and one at 3am to send them home! However, they wouldn't go, and at about 5am, we were still playing to a packed gyrating ballroom. Of course, we had our own van by this time, its windscreen wipers were the manual kind; i.e., strings to each and pulled alternately by a non-driving band member.

It was the Master Robert Motel gig which finally got us to meet Paul. I think he'd been to see us a few times there and gradually, he became a full time member. I remember thinking how well his harp and banjo playing added to the effect we were trying to create. 1969 and we got an audition for the Hughie Green TV talent show. As far as I remember, we played 'MIGHTY MAN' and 'IN THE SUMMERTIME' - we got no further! Probably no bad thing! My one poignant memory of that day was of a middle-aged comedian who kept pleading, "Give me a break Hughie, give me a break." Hughie wasn't even there. Later in '69, JOE RUSH decided to quit the band, a thing he did with alarming regularity! No reasons asked for or given. We advertised for a double bass player and we auditioned MIKE COLE in the Phoenix pub, Staines. What we didn't know was that there was a stag party that night in the same room, so we ended up doing a gig and enjoying the talents of an attractive lady exotic dancer.

Later that year, Ray got in touch with a former agent of his who was now in-house producer at Pye Records, BARRY MURRAY. He and JOHN GODFREY (also working at Pye) saw us in a rehearsal room in Soho, and asked if we wanted a recording contract. We didn't refuse. So early 1970, we recorded the first album, including 'IN THE SUMMERTIME'. We wanted 'MIGHTY MAN' as the single, but the record company wanted 'Summertime'. They got their way and the rest is history. Prior to the Pye recording contract, we signed up with the Red Bus Co at the suggestions of the directors, BARRY MURRAY, ELIOT COHEN and ELLIS ELIAS. We also signed a recording contract with Red Bus which was cancelled a few weeks later. My own theory on this is that Red Bus could see that they would make a lot of money if our records were successful and they could pay us a very small royalty percentage, while having a lease tape deal with Pye which would pay them considerably more. Also, they would have had complete control of where the money was to be paid. However, because they didn't have the money or confidence in us (or both) to pay for the recordings, their only way out was to sign us direct to Pye (Dawn). We should be eternally grateful that our royalties to this day are paid direct to us! Actually, Pye did freeze our royalty payments after the break-up in '72, but Paul and I engaged a very good lawyer, TREVOR LYTTLETON, who managed to get them paid to all three of us individually, and not to Red Bus, who then distributed them to us, because although Ray stayed with Red Bus after the split, we didn't, and we had certain misgivings about ever receiving them! I think I am justified in this somewhat jaded view because part of our deal with Ray included payments to us for live shows that Ray was doing - we never received a penny! Furthermore, I don't think that Ray was even aware that it was Paul's and my efforts which had freed the royalties. Perhaps he didn't need them as much!

The Hollywood Festival, the best thing by a long, long way that Red Bus ever did for MUNGO JERRY. They even got us in an early evening spot, when not only had it stopped raining, but the sun came beaming across the horizon in silver shafts. We were also the first band to use the lights (it being dusk), and this has a galvanizing effect at any all-day type show. During daylight, the stage visually is just part of the landscape, but flood it with good lighting plus the sounds, and the performers come to life, like so many enchanted puppets. And what else are you gonna watch? We knew our music worked. We'd played plenty of small colleges, like Borough SE1, Brunel, etc and large ones like Goldsmiths, Oxford University, etc. And we were like any rent party band, that our heroes belonged to. We were a part of a whole - that's all. But we knew our music. Hollywood was magical and I am proud to have been of something so heart-warming and good.

We had been going to do another 'thank you' gig at the Master Robert motel, but the manager wouldn't put the money up from £12 to £18 - so we didn't do it. I remember the first play on any radio station we got was, WALLY WHYTON'S 'COUNTRY MEETS FOLK', on BBC Radio 2 - he played 'DUST PNEUMONIA BLUES'. I was very happy about that. Somebody knew what we were about. Then it got crazy!

TV shows, interviews, gigs, offers from the whole world. I had previously spent my last £150 on a package holiday for my wife Val and myself to go to Ibiza, and 'Summertime' made No.1 the morning we left! When we got to Spain, nobody had heard it! On that flight, I first met RONNIE FOWLER, then of E.M.I, later of Jet Records, we had a great time. Ten days into that holiday, I had to fly to Frankfurt to do a TV. I think that one was for MIKE LECKERBUSH, a gifted producer, who actually used a run-through take for one number because he liked the weird way we played! (We were sodding about).

The biggest festival we did was Rotterdam (est.500,000 people), the cover of 'ELECTRONICALLY TESTED' is from that gig. Even the trees were full of people and they swayed in time as we played! A U.S tour was arranged and Barry and ELLIS ELIAS flew out to 'check it all out'. I don't know what they checked out, but it was not our tour! We flew out on the 24th of September 1970 to New York and into a 'mother' heat wave!

I was probably better off than the other boys, as my brother Roger (with SAVOY BROWN) met me at the hotel and told me what to expect, and that various friends of his would be dropping in at our gigs. He also organised tour manager, TONY OUTEDA for us (he'd previously worked for SAVOY BROWN). We are still friends to this day. We had a six-week tour planned and when we arrived, it appeared we had about 10 gigs! After a pretty good start at New York's Fillmore East with THE STEVE MILLER BAND, there was nothing! Tony got us a cheap motel out on Long Island at a lovely spot called Port Jefferson. We hung out while ELIOT COHEN (of Red Bus) worked his proverbials off to organise a decent tour. It was a struggle, but we got through, best gigs being Portland, Maine University, with MOUNTAIN, BADFINGER, etc and Fillmore West with POCO and PROCOL HARUM. We had a disaster at LA's Whisky A-Gogo Club after an afternoon record company bash where undoubtedly too much alcohol was consumed! The audience was wrong for us there, but Ray, Paul and I did a freebie at the Troubadour down the street from the 'Whisky' and we tore it apart!

We had been having a tough time with MICK COLE; he was no rock'n roll player and didn't really feel what we were about. This was not his fault, he was a modern jazz player. It really was at this point that the decision was taken to ask him to leave, when we got back to England.

We even did a church youth club gig to aid funds, and a sweet teenage girl asked us if we would do an interview for the club magazine. She asked what was the latest dance craze in England. Using Cockney rhyming slang, we told her 'The Jodrell'. Certain actions of 'the dance' were described with great enthusiasm by ourselves, and to my knowledge, into the church mag it all went! A recording session was organised at Electric Ladyland, NYC. BARRY MURRAY flew in to produce, and it was hopeless. We were not in the right frame of mind (having a traumatic and long tour), not playing enough and then were expected to produce a follow-up to 'Summertime' in two days! Management of the right kind - they were not!

We did get organised once back in England and JOHN GODFREY had taken over from MICK COLE. 'BABY JUMP', originally 'BRAND NEW CADILLAC' by VINCE TAYLOR, but with new words by Ray, emerged and was a great visual number for TOP OF THE POPS, etc. We had been doing the original song for a couple of years, so it all went very smoothly, which is more than can be said about the initial reaction to it. But one 'TOTP' and it was a hit.

The first album had been a very democratic affair, which is more than can be said about 'ELECTRONICALLY TESTED'. Whereas the diverse yet dovetailing qualities of each member had been fully exploited on the first album, Ray stated that either you performed it on stage or he didn't want it on the (2nd) album. Neither Paul, and certainly not myself wanted to usurp Ray as frontman, but I do think that he simply wanted as much of the writing royalties and kudos as possible. It was a sign, unfortunately, of things to come. Even old originals were 'Trad.arr.Dorset', a trait I've never liked, mainly because it denies older musicians of a little money and we know, that's were we got the songs from. Own up. Ray wasn't the first to do this, though, and he won't be the last.

The gigs throughout '71 were generally great fun, but it was Ray who was out by himself, always travelling alone in England to gigs, and usually arriving late. He'd sometimes suddenly want a 'soundcheck' which always turned into a guitar solo of immense proportions, sound and lengthwise. The friend I'd known since he was 15 was no longer the same. I know his emotions were torn, but the only way was increasingly his way or not at all. I have considered all those attitudes which were struck, and can only put it down to outside influences, Everyone noticed it. Sad.

'LADY ROSE' was a deserved hit. The BBC having made yet another corporate fool of itself by banning it as soon as someone heard 'HAVE A WHIFF ON ME' on the B-side. A few years previously, they had of course made a hit of LONNIE DONEGAN'S 'Drink On Me' version. Ours was a faithful rendition of the song - totally in character with the band and its heritage. Castrate it and we'll play it!

The solo albums of Ray and Paul - I think both were most accomplished, especially when you consider our relative lack of experience in recording studios. I remember thinking at the time, and I still adhere to this opinion, that on balance, if more of these individual talents had been unselfishly channelled into MUNGO JERRY, the benefit to the individuals would have multiplied enormously. Ray was definitely not interested in Paul's work though, and Paul had been taken in by such as PAUL BRETT, who considered MUNGO JERRY to be musically inept. "They flatter to deceive".

Me? I can't sing, wish I could. I've got my own piano style. I owe what ability I have to people - not books. I love blues, country, Cajun and rock'n roll. My piano playing has been described as useless, and brilliant. Like most things in life, it's probably somewhere between the two! What it has got is me - heart and soul, balls and all! I love all the people I've always loved - JERRY LEE LEWIS, MUDDY WATERS, OTIS SPANN,etc. Also BOB DYLAN, HANK WILLIAMS JNR, RY COODER, WILLIE NELSON, LITTLE FEAT and any number of Cajun bands I've had the pleasure of listening to and seeing in Louisiana.

In 1971, my brother Roger, along with TONY STEVENS and DAVE PEVERETT left SAVOY BROWN to form FOGHAT with ROD PRICE and TONY OUTEDA as manager. They asked me if I'd play the piano where necessary, so between MUNGO JERRY gigs, I drove to Rockfield, Monmouth, and I did it. Their version of CHUCK BERRY's 'MAYBELLINE' is one track I've always thought I played well on. The album was eventually a big hit in the States and it got me my first Gold album. Tony first tried to sell it in England, but of course, it wasn't any good, was it? ...BOB DYLAN's manager ALBERT GROSSMAN thought differently.

Back to MUNGO JERRY, more gigs, Britain and Europe. Far East tour (South East Asia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand) is set for Jan/Feb 1972. We played Chelsea College and two very gifted strippers get up on stage during 'IN THE SUMMERTIME', which means everyone hears the only 20 minute version, while the band strain eyes and fingers! Towards the end of '71, we do a nationwide college tour and meet up with DAVE LAMBERT. Ray is still turning up at the last moment to play - and missing out on the camaraderie - one of the best parts of road work. It also keeps you talking, like other human beings, to each other - but not if you're not there. An example of how you've got to look out for each other was the tour of Yugoslavia. We'd ordered the necessary amps, PA, piano and one particular show in Belgrade had 5,000 real fans rooting for us. Imagine our anger, when we realised the PA power is about one tenth of what we requested. I think the total output was about 130 watts, for 5,000 people! An audio piss in the ocean! Something had to be done - they loved us but were getting extremely frustrated by not being able to hear us! Desperate situations need, etc, etc - so I pushed the piano of the 15ft high stage, followed by the mikes! Uproar, massive inquests by the Police, press, etc. I explained why. Then the truth came out. The money for the show was given to the local organizers by the government arts dept, but of course they pocketed most of it, figuring and amps an amp, right? There was a large inquest after we'd gone!

The Far East tour started on January 1st 1972. We played a South London club the night before and I've never seen so many Rolls Royce's in my life. Don't know what they all did for a living. But I remember Ray and myself being chauffeured home in the early hours. Malaysian Airways then soothed our passage with champagne all the way to Singapore. For Paul and myself, the situation with Ray had not improved on that last English tour. There were no discussions, re; new numbers or ways of improving the act. If Ray wanted to change something, he'd just do it on stage - we usually managed to fake it. It had never been this way - but now the band was suffering. If you mentioned anything - Ray shrugged. We didn't talk anymore.

We did have some fun in the Far East though. Malaysia didn't want hairy hippies and most bands cut their hair. I still considered us to be a pop band by accident only. Our hair was staying on our heads - and we got in! Japan was very interested in us, and Paul was presented with a complete set of harps at one show, and, as the Japanese presenter eloquently remarked, "to pray neglo brues." We arrived at night in Perth, Western Australia, and were promptly aerosol-fumigated before we were out of our seats - the joke is, we saw more flies in one minute in Perth than we'd seen in three weeks in S.E Asia.

Perth was a real treat. Promotional cruises down the Swan river or local TV news clips filmed live on the beach. Paul and I were and are real beach bums! We didn't mind what publicity the record company wanted - as long as it took place on the beach. We'd learnt not to spend hours waiting on a DJ's whim in some stuffy studio waiting room. Of course, the whole atmosphere of coastal Australia was beach orientated, so the promo stuff was usually well received. Ray did the occasional studio interview and John was seen on the beach only when requested. He had much more important duties to attend to, namely checking the amount of scotch in any given bottle. One reception in Melbourne was in a large dimly lit bar where a wheelbarrow was part of the rustic decor. Paul bet John that he couldn't get out of the barrow with two full glasses of scotch kept intact. He stayed there for at least two hours - not caring to move as long as the glasses were kept full - and indeed, not able to move when it became the time to do so.

The Australian shows were various. From a wooden shack in Kargoorlie, the old gold mining town (a 400 mile drive in a non-air conditioned car in 100 plus in the shade temperatures) and with calico-clad aboriginal ladies of the night waiting for us when we'd finished! To Sydney cricket ground open air concerts! On Taramara beach in Sydney, Paul and I were propositioned by three over-friendly young men, and had to beat a hasty retreat! The tour moved to New Zealand, where at the open-air concert, we broke all previous records. Also Wellington City Hall was packed and the atmosphere was electric - we could still do it! Back to Perth for a 10 day holiday before returning home to England - we played a local bar at night - and they paid for our hotel expenses. We actually got to the airport one day - then promptly turned round to have more fun! We eventually got back to England around February 10th. England was so grey!

Although pissed off by Ray's attitude on stage, the Aussie tour had at least got him to laugh with us again. We had a few days off. An ad had been inserted in MELODY MAKER for a drummer - Paul and I auditioned them - I got Foghat to play with them so Paul and I could judge their abilities. Ray never once turned up to these auditions. We'd had enough. We called a band meeting at Red Bus - we wanted MUNGO JERRY - Pye wanted Ray - he got it. End of story!

THE KING EARL BOOGIE BAND was Paul, myself, DAVE LAMBERT, RUSSELL JOHN BROWN and JOE RUSH. Pye gave us £3,000 to produce an album. we chose RICHARD BRANSON's 'THE MANOR' at Oxford, to make it. Good atmosphere, but the single, 'PLASTIC JESUS' was immediately banned by the B.B.C, which effectively killed the commercial possibilities of the album. 'PLASTIC JESUS', a song despising the morality of "I've got a plastic charm, I can do what I like to anyone." To the Beeb, it meant "PLASTIC JESUS". You tell me that a jock listens to the discs he plays - I'll tell you bollocks!

MIKE & JIM DOLAN, THE STRAWBS managers, were now ours also. They kept promising a tour, we kept waiting to start. The night before it was due to go ahead, they nicked DAVE LAMBERT for THE STRAWBS who sorely needed a frontman, and thank you very much and goodbye.

1973, FOGHAT had asked me to join them in the States, and after a brief encounter with DAVE KELLY, JOHN DUMMER & THUMPER THOMPSON in a rock/blues outfit, during which incidentally, an album was made at Rockfield which included the last recordings by GRAHAM BOND, I joined FOGHAT, flying into New York, then straight down to Mississippi and in at the deep end. During my first year with FOGHAT, THE STRAWBS, opened a show for us in New York, accompanied by JIM DOLAN, one of the two managers who effectively ended KEBB for us. The irony of the situation was not lost on me, as FOGHAT's tour manager, I had to cut their set by 20 minutes because they were late. Dolan protested, but to no avail. Organisation, they had no idea.

A band properly run by a manager who cared - they could only go one way - and up we went. I was tour manager and piano player, and the organisation, record company commitment, agency ditto, were something I'd never known before. No prima donnas. Professionals - but believing in what they did and doing it to the best of their abilities. And having fun to boot! The list of bands we played under and then above on the bill is enormous. They include, JOHNNY WINTER, EDGAR WINTER, ROD STEWART & THE FACES, (my brother Roger took a liking to BRITT EKLAND, the feelings were reciprocated and they lived together blissfully happy for all of six months!), AEROSMITH, BOB SEGER, ALLMAN BROS, ZZ TOP, LYNYRD SKYNYRD, JOE WALSH, DOOBIE BROS, etc. The organisation became more important so as to maintain our professional standards. But always, we enjoyed doing our work, and doing it well.

I always travelled back to England after each tour but in late '75, my wife had had enough and asked for a divorce. I had a five year old daughter, and I decided to maintain a more stable future, to quit FOGHAT. One day Ray rang out of the blue. Did I fancy a blow? Sure I did. I remember going to his house in North London and had a great time going through the old songs. Would I like to rejoin him? It seemed a good idea. I had a long time interest in classic high performance cars, Aston Martin's (my Dad used to work for them), Maserati's, Lamborghini's, Ferrari's, etc, and it had become a profitable hobby. It was just as well, as to my surprise, BARRY MURRAY, who was once again Ray's manager, told me and the rest of the band that the pay was the princely sum of £20 a week! What a joke!

I had seen PAUL KING every time I came back to England, and Paul had settled into a semi-solo pub career.

With Ray, I toured Germany (regularly), Sweden once (in the winter - and never again - no wonder they commit suicide a lot out there)! The Middle East, Dubai, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, etc, which included a free 10-day holiday for everyone plus their partners in Bangkok for playing an extra half hour at one of the shows! France, Poland and Zimbabwe (then still Rhodesia). One of the Rhodesian airlines, Viscount Airliners that we did an internal flight on was shot out of the sky by a heat-seeking missile a month later...

During this period, from '76 to '80, I was able to record occasionally for FOGHAT in the U.S.A, and continue to buy, sell and enjoy my passion for classic cars, as well as play piano with Ray. I make the point of my other activities because they provided the real satisfaction in my professional life. Make no mistake, the music was becoming a parody of its former self.

In 1980, Paul joined in for a few '10 Years Of Mungo Jerry' gigs. FOGHAT came over to England to interview a number of prospective new lead guitarists and asked me to oversee proceedings. I did. Ray announced that he wanted to do a German tour "with a trio", so we split again. Simple. It had been dead a long time.

The original MUNGO JERRY, and by that I mean Ray, Paul and myself with genuine help from JOE RUSH, was an original. It could have been great. It nearly was. 60's revival shows, night clubs were tuxedos are the norm, that's not what MUNGO JERRY was about. It was people, people who wanted to be part of their own music. Ask any of those 35,000 that were at Hollywood, Stoke-on-Trent on that early summer evening in 1970. They'll remember, they'll remember 'till the day they die how the music, their music, moved them.

Since 1981, back to the U.S.A and FOGHAT 'till late '84. Then Paul and I got the nucleus of SKELETON CREW going, including IAN CAMPBELL (ex-NASHVILLE TEENS), lead/slide guitar, COLIN 'BRM' PATTENDEN (ex-MANFRED MANN'S EARTHBAND), bass, and DON STEVENS, washboard, traps, percussion and big bass drum. We play as much as we want, mainly pubs, make our own professional quality records, and have a great time playing for people who want a good time. The audience play the zob sticks, tambourines, etc. It's good to see people having a ball! When will I stop? When I drop dead. And the future? Who knows!

SKELETON CREW, my cars, forays to the States, fishing and last but most important of all, my family. Of my three daughters, it's probably the two youngest who have a definitive leaning towards music. And would I ever try and stop them going into music if they wanted? What? And miss all the good times I've had!

COLIN EARL - 1989.