As most of issue 4 of MUN-GO FOR IT!, was billed as a KING & EARL special and was made up largely of lengthy contributions from both MUNGO legends. Because what they put down was so comprehensive, you can find it all in full on the interviews page. To wet your whistle's, here's a taster of what to expect.

"In the beginning, we took the music world by storm, not only because of our style of music, but also because of the rough and ready image and carefree attitude we displayed on and off the stage - we were in fact at this time very unique. We were a hit all the way around the world and from Eskimos to Aborigines, they loved us"

"Mungo was blend of us all, colourful, a bit roguish and above all, totally different in the way we sat down and pumped out our earthy but happy-go-lucky style of music. We were if you like, at one with each other and the world and it worked"

"We were being treated as a novelty band by the press; that may be but we were still the best live band around"

"Had we stayed together as the original outfit and changed as we needed, we could still have been going now"

COLIN EARL

"The biggest festival we did was Rotterdam (est.500,000), even the trees were full of people and they swayed in time as we played"

"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"

"Ask any of those 35,000 that were at Hollywood on that early summer evening in 1970. They'll remember, they'll remember 'til the day they die how the music, their music, moved them"

"Hollywood was magical and I'm proud to have been a part of something so heart-warming and good"

A heavy black cloud left Newcastle at twenty to five, alongside myself on the journey was a country bumpkin commonly known as 'CHILLI'. The reason for this doom and gloom cloud was - LIVERPOOL 2 CHELSEA 1 (at this point, Derek breaks in to inform all of you who don't already know, that although Alan Taylor hails from Newcastle, he is a Geordie who supports CHELSEA!)

The result had put me in a very poor state of mind for a long journey. DANNY BAKER's radio show had cheered me up somewhat by the time we reached Leeds, and I was just about back to 'normal' when we pulled up in the Civic Hall car park. A MUNGO gig at Heywood Civic Hall is to be recommended, as all of the audience seem to have seen the band several times before at earlier appearances. They are usually up and bopping from the word go.

With this to look forward to, we set off for the bar and met up with fellow-MUNGO gypsies, MIKE BERRY and PHIL GILL. Shortly after arriving, Mike had his car broken into and the rumour going round that the band were not turning up did wonders for our peace of mind. But we needn't have worried, just as we were thinking of doing the gig ourselves, the band tumbled into the bar. They had been in their hotel room all the time killing time. Their gig in Blackpool the following night meant that they were staying over.

CUPID'S INSPIRATION finished their probably longer than usual set and made way for MUNGO JERRY at about ten o'clock and the boys proceeded to do a show of around 2 hours in length. All the usual stage favourites were there, 'SOMEBODY STOLE MY WIFE', 'SEE YOU LATER ALLIGATOR', 'LONG LEGGED WOMAN', 'LADY ROSE', 'MIGHTY MAN', all done in the usual competent MUNGO style along with a pretty long display of old standards such as, 'BARBARA ANN', 'DIANA', etc. For most of the punters in attendance, this was pure heaven, but for the MUNGO-nutters in the crowd, it seemed to drag on a bit.

Of course, in a venue such as the Civic Hall, this sort of repertoire is both expected and appreciated by the regulars. It has to be said that the band go down very well here, but for me, the highlights of the entire gig were the brilliant versions of the old CANNED HEAT song, 'ON THE ROAD AGAIN', and the IKE AND TINA TURNER number 'NUTBUSH CITY LIMITS'. I've heard a lot of CANNED HEAT cover versions but nothing as good as this.

I can just see MUNGO doing it in some underground blues club somewhere. There is a deep, heavy bluesy feel to this one, and some PAUL KING chunky harp playing would be the icing on the cake for me. I've always felt that MUNGO JERRY were the best around for the old blues, particularly in the early days. Hopefully when the follow-up to 'SNAKEBITE' sees the light of day, 'ROAD AGAIN' will be on it. It got me thinking that it would make for a good maxi-single, 'NUTBUSH CITY LIMITS', 'ON THE ROAD AGAIN' and maybe the old TRINI LOPEZ sing-a-long number, 'IF I HAD A HAMMER', which is another MJ do very well. I'm not usually in favour of cover versions, but some are done so well by the band, certainly as good, if not better than the originals.

The gig continued with some more hits, jug band songs and some great rockers, and when they finally called it a day, not far off midnight, it seemed the whole place was on the dance floor baying for more. A couple of encores later, that was it, but not to worry, the compere reassured us that the band would be asked back again in the New Year. His words as they made off for a well earned drink..."the amazing MUNGO JERRY", just about summed it up.

ALAN TAYLOR, 1992.

Following on from this, Derek saw MUNGO at Blackpool a couple of months later, and added to the MUNGO set is 'HEAVY FOOT STOMP', which features AL JOHNSON playing the sax intro and solo. That's nice, nice, nice!