PAUL KING
MUSIC: I've always loved music - but before MUNGO JERRY, I worked as a trainee chartered accountant, scenic artist, sculptor, prop maker (studio), fruit picker, busker, delivering beer or draymen you call it, hod carrier and grave digger. Musical leanings have varied considerably over the years as new artists have appeared, but early roots were in folk and DYLAN, followed closely by DONOVAN and T.REX. LEADBELLY and WOODY GUTHRIE are obviously in there along with the early BEATLES, also PINK FLOYD and the band AUDIENCE have influenced me a great deal. First single that really made me sit up and listen was 'JOHNNY REMEMBER ME' by JOHN LEYTON - really liked that one.
WHY I WANTED TO JOIN GOOD EARTH AT MASTER ROBERT: I was born on January 9th 1948 in Dagenham, Essex, which makes me a Capricorn by birth, but for anybody interested in Astrology, I collect a lot of things in Gemini, mid-heaven and rising signs and all that and tend to lean more to the air sign than the cardinal sign of Capricorn. This I suppose has quite a strong influence on my songwriting and character, one minute writing happy little songs, while other times deep melancholy numbers, the same with my moods - up one minute, down the next - typical Gemini really - and then other times, a typical workhorse Capricorn set in my ways. Anyway, I was born to a family with a long history of dockers and stevedores from the East End of London, but my father wanted to do better for himself and when I was about three, we moved to a village called Stanwell, next to Heathrow where my father had obtained a job working as an engineer for B.O.A.C. I spent most of my childhood in and around that village which had a very mixed population of locals, airport
workers, gypsies, travellers. A lot of roughnecks resettled from the East End and a few upmarket toffs as well. So I was mixing with quite a diverse set of people from a very young age. Whether this had any influence on my songwriting is difficult to say but it was an interesting childhood if not always a happy one. I was educated at the local secondary modern school, obtaining 3 o-levels (Maths, English and Art), and was advised by the headmaster to go to art college. Unfortunately at the time, parents had to contribute to part of their
children's grants and as my father wasn't having any of it, I left school at 16 to be of all things, a trainee chartered accountant. I think had I gone to college, I would have been playing in bands a lot sooner. A hell of a lot of 60's and 70's musicians got together at art school - PETE TOWNSEND, JAGGER, BOWIE to name but a few, a pinstripe suit was definitely walking backwards.
However, back to my childhood. I really didn't start getting into music until quite late, about 14-15 years old. At home, we only had an old radio and there was only one hour of pop music on every Sunday afternoon, and as we didn't have a record player, I was out on a limb about where it was all at really. I spent most of my leisure time out with the rough element, scrumping, poaching rabbits with air-rifles and catapults, and when they were available, chasing the local females. I think that is when I really became interested in music; around the time you start thinking seriously about women. I'd gone to a local village fete and had seen a jazz band playing on the back of a lorry (we were to do the same thing years later with MUNGO on a tour of New Zealand) and this band looked really good, especially the banjo player, t-shirt, fag hanging out of his mouth, and braces. He looked pretty cool to a 14-year old, especially with all the girls hanging around. You
guessed it - I bought a banjo. Unfortunately, it wasn't a tenor or bluegrass banjo but an 8-string banjolin. I couldn't tune the bastard thing and it was only months later after I had systematically destroyed it with a club hammer that I found out it had to be tuned exactly like a mandolin - makes sense really - 8 strings, etc. Anyway, this had whetted my appetite for a stringed instrument, so while I was saving to buy a proper banjo, I bought a harmonica for 10s 9d instead. This was a lot easier to play and all the bands; BEATLES, STONES, PRETTY THINGS, etc were using them so you could follow along or improvise. I picked it up really quickly after a local muso who played sax as well said that you suck mores notes than you blow when playing the blues (not on the sax of course) and that was it, I was away. I used to play a lot for the lads at school during the break and boring lessons, and it wasn't long before I was sitting in with a local blues band, THE ROOSTERS if I can recall, and also THE COUNT FOUR, led by STEVE BLOOMFIELD of MATCHBOX fame who was later to become a very dear friend. Unfortunately, you can't use a harp on every number so I found myself pretty much redundant for 75% of the gigs. Then came my first banjo, I had just left school and the princely sum of £4.50 was burning a hole in my pocket so I borrowed another 50p (ten bob I mean) and jumped on the back of my friends Harley Davison (the first and last time I might add), and travelled ten miles to pick up a banjo, a 6-string zither one this time which I had seen in the local paper advertised for £5. Next problem; what to do with a 6-string banjo - most have five. Well, I tuned it like a folk banjo, using only 5 strings and soon learnt enough chords to busk along. The only problem was you still couldn't use banjo that much on R'n B music so gradually, I drifted into folk music. I was
about 17. At this time, I was getting heavily into boozing, all I can remember one night is getting absolutely legless at a party and falling down the stairs while playing 'LOVE ME DO' by THE BEATLES on my harmonica. I didn't break my neck or swallow the harp, but woke up the next morning in hospital with appendicitis, having a nurse stick her finger up my arse, and another one shaving my bollocks (nice if you're a poofter I suppose). Anyway, I was off work for about six weeks and
thoroughly bored, couldn't even have a laugh or a fuck because my side hurt so much, let alone play the harp, so I borrowed an old acoustic guitar from a Scottish friend of mine. That was it, I was in heaven, my fingers had hardened playing the banjo, and in a week I had learned enough chords to write my first couple of songs. That came about really because although I had the guitar, we hadn't owned a record player at home and to be quite honest, I didn't know what
to play. I had bought some folk 'sing out' books to learn tunes for the banjo but could only read the chords and not the silly little dots, so I had no idea of how the melodies went. So the only way I could sing songs was to write my own as I was not really that clever at copying other artists material.
I found that it came quite easily, and soon had the harmonica strapped around my neck like DONOVAN and DYLAN who were just making an impression at the time. I spent my whole recuperation period learning the guitar and writing songs and going to various folk clubs to more or less see where it was all at. It was more or less this time that I had my first glimpse of RAY DORSET playing at a cafe called Vanity Fair one lunchtime with THE TRAMPS. He was unknown to me but I remember thinking what a great voice he had. However after six weeks convalescing, my fortunes were about to change. Having arrived back at work on a hot July afternoon, I was told that if I wanted to become like my boss, an ageing accountant with a bald head, glasses, pasty skin, rounded shoulders, sitting in a sweaty old office , I would have to have my hair cut and smarten myself up - I said fuck it and left
there and then. Thus began my busking and roaming period more or less until I teamed up with RAY and COLIN. I spent the rest of that summer growing my hair and busking my way around the West Country and the South Coast, mainly playing in boozers and guesting at local folk clubs. I acquired and wrote a lot of material at that period, and also won a local talent contest down in Margate, a bottle of bubbly I think it was, for singing LEADBELLY's version of 'IRENE GOODNIGHT', along with my old mate SIDDY BARANY, on
ukulele. I stopped roaming around with the onset of winter, only managing to play in local pubs for beer money. Feeling desperate, I managed to get myself a job as an artist and sculptor at Bendy Toys, Shepperton, making models of Mickey Mouse, Superman, Bugs Bunny, etc - I actually designed a few myself as well. Looking back,
I never got any royalties from those either! An art director from Shepperton Studios was visiting one day, looking for someone to make some props for the Bond film, 'CASINO ROYALE', I made them and luckily landed a job at the studios as a prop maker and set dresser. The money was fantastic but all the excitement was on the other side of the camera. The best thing that happened to me , though was as a prop, I was in charge of URSULA ANDRESS's handbag, gear and accessories, etc. Nice being close too, and
talking to the lovely lass, but as I felt a bit of a twat holding the handbag, actually she's not as tall as she looks. Being on set was far more interesting than prop making, better views and better money too, but the crunch came for me when we were filming in
Dulwich Park. I was in charge of a dozen horses as they are regarded as props. Well to cut it short, a whole film crew, lots of Bond lovelies, a crowd of some 500 spectators and all the King's horses. And
what do they do all day - yeah shit, and horse shit are props and I had to shovel it. It was a bit of a downer to say the least but I was getting itchy feet, the filming on location was coming to an end, it was Spring and I had some money burning a hole in my pocket again.
Next stop - Crete! I've always been interested in classical Greece and I'd never set foot outside of England until now and I was 19, a late starter really. That was a great experience travelling between the Greek Islands by ferry to Crete having flown on a cheap flight to Athens - that's a piss hole but Crete and some of the smaller islands are absolute magic - heaven on earth! I spent the whole summer travelling and lying on the beach and in the evenings playing in the tavernas for Ouzo, Retsina and the excellent Greek food, sometimes joined at the weekend by mountain-folk who would come down to the village with their bouzoukis and three-stringed fiddles - unique to Crete. Can't help thinking what an awful row it must have sounded - 'LEADBELLY AND JANIS THE YODELLER'. All good things must come to an end the Walrus said and late summer found me back in England, somewhat darker, but with no money and no job. I suppose this was about the
time of the hippies and flower power, I never got into the drug scene but jumped at the chance to dress up in the kaftans, knee high boots, military jackets, etc. Looking back, what with the strange array of hats and other brightly coloured attributes, we must have looked like a gang of wandering Spanish gypsies infiltrated by some lesser bred 'Comanche's', but flowers - no, we never ever put pansies in our hair.
That summer and autumn was the best, roaming around the countryside, fruit picking, the bank holidays spent down on the coast with a weird assortment of hippies, Hells Angels, beatniks and a few other oddballs and nearly every night, at least 30 or 40 of us huddled around a
simmering camp fire playing songs from DONOVAN, DYLAN, T.REX, LEADBELLY, LONNIE DONEGAN, yeah and SCOTT MACKENZIE - 'SAN FRANCISCO' was my party piece at the time. We were having an absolute ball, so much so that when my best mate Terry and I said drunkenly after one hot and lusty bank holiday that we were going to the South Of France to carry on the party. We were only really jesting at the time but two days later, three of the Hells Angels turned up at our local boozer where we having a jam and said they were coming to France with us. Needing no more encouragement, Terry and I went home, got our passports and the hippy gear and
promptly left with one of the rockers, the others following on two days later, without their bikes I might add as we had all decided to hitch. That was a disaster, hippies and Hells Angels standing at Calais Docks trying to thumb a lift was beyond the ridiculous especially as we had no leggy females to push out front. Needless to say, we caught a train to Paris, split up and some three days later,
rendezvoused on the beach outside the Carlton Hotel, Cannes.
Well the French loved us, 'A WHITER SHADE OF PALE' was in their charts and I think we were the first hippies
they had seen and the other boys, that was something else. While Terry and I supplied the music, the other lads had this weird rocker type stomp they would do along the promenade at the same time holding out a top hat and bowler for the francs, we actually earned £8 in five minutes, a kings ransom in those days. We
earned great money, ate good food, drank plenty of vino and met some very charming but very naughty French girls. It was a great time enjoyed by all, even the Gendarmes would stand and listen, and I can remember well one night around the old camp fire on the beach, joss-sticks fragrantly burning in the cool night air, vegetables nicked from the local fields simmering in the pot, some fish that Terry had caught sizzling on the charcoal, the distant crash of the waves. There must have been about 40 of us including one Japanese, a couple of
Germans, a dozen or so Scandinavians and some naughty but nice French girls all singing together; What the fuck am I doing here? Actually Terry's in Thailand - lucky bugger!
Winter comes to the South Of France as well and that November found us back home in 40 degrees drizzle, not on but in the RUSSIAN FRONT. It was a band I formed with Terry and our old pal, STEVE BLOOMFIELD, dressing in long army great coats, fingerless gloves and Terry going as far as to wear a balaclava - mad! It was like a sauna in the coats alone. We'd got the band together out of necessity really to earn some money, I'd brought along a lovely girl called Helene back from Cannes with me and had been promptly been thrown out of home by the old man, as had Terry, and Steve was on the dole. The only place we could rehearse was in the local bus shelter and launderette which was bloody freezing, hence the winter gear and subsequent name. THE RUSSIAN FRONT played mainly in the local clubs and pubs, climaxing at the Crown Folk Club in Twickenham. One night when an 18-string
Portuguese guitar I had adapted
This time the trip was organised, Terry and I had another friend, Olly - a good money collector with a hat, bought an old Bedford van and headed for Africa - via Portugal. France had been a taster and this was going to be the trip of a lifetime - it was - a bad one! I don't know how it came about but we never made Portugal, but found ourselves on the Costa Brava in Benidorm. This was before all the skyscrapers and package deals, and the town was in its infancy, very pretty and actually quite welcoming. The police unfortunately were not! Whereas the French had loved us, the Spanish didn't know what to make of us. FRANCO was in power and the police seemed worried by our mere presence and without even strumming a chord, we were in nick. Needless to say, I could write a book on this chapter of my life, suffice to say, we were
promptly stripped, fingerprinted, mug shot, and then horror of horrors, shaved bald, apart from Terry who for some unknown reason, they left a 10" clump of blonde hair on the top of his head. He resembled a modern Howard Jones or a manic cockatoo. I looked like a negative - nut brown face, white head and a white strip where my tash had been. We can laugh now but it was grim at the time and we were deported and banished from Spain for ten years.
It was still summer, so I went down to Cornwall mainly to grow back the barnet and hide my face and did various jobs such as grave digging, working on the beer lorries, and scenic artist for a local theatre, etc and wrote a hell of a lot of material - much that was to be recorded later. When I stopped looking like a skinhead, I came back and started playing the new songs round the pubs and clubs. One day I walked into the Master Robert motel, heard music sweet to my hears - and the rest is history.
THE SPLIT: As you know, it is normally radio on which you first hear a band, and before you ever get a glimpse of them, your mind can conjure all sorts of images and characters. Sometimes you can love the song but be totally unimpressed by the performers, likewise you can see a band advertised on a poster or in the press, think they look the business but be disappointed once you've heard them. In the early 70's with MUNGO, we had the lot, the image, the songs, the ultimate success, but in the beginning it wasn't always like that. When I first met Ray, he dressed quite straight and if anything leaned more to the medallion man, whereas Colin had his own identity. I was always willing to chop and change to whatever made us look different. In fact on the first photo session for the 'SUMMERTIME' single, Ray had nothing to wear and can be seen wearing an old cut up leather coat of mine along with some of my old hippy beads. The photo actually
worked, although we came over as quite heavy looking (not musically).
What I am actually getting at here is that MUNGO JERRY in the beginning was not one man but a democratic bunch of musos who had a common link with skiffle and the blues who enjoyed their music. Ray had the front and the voice but not the image or dress sense to go it alone, although to be fair, he did listen to advice and looked sensational in the hairy boots and cloak, etc. MUNGO, was a 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.
Unfortunately, where success is concerned, money and greed will always raise its ugly head and towards the later days, this is what ultimately happened. We had the misfortune if you like of having our first single go to No.1 without knowing really, all the different avenues where the royalties come from. P.R.S (Performing Right Society) for instance was totally new to me and I can't be sure, but due to certain contracts I think Ray lost or never received, all the money for 'IN THE SUMMERTIME'. We would have been better to have had a couple of minor hits before the big one in order to sort out better contracts and percentages and to reap the full benefit. I believe we were only on 1% between the four of us, where the norm is around 12%. Through being naive and exploited, we lost out a great deal, Ray more than anyone else.
I think that this is one of the factors that made him change along with the fact that we were being treated as a novelty band by the press; that may be but we were still the best live band around, but Ray wanted to change and bring in a drummer. This wasn't a totally bad idea, for some of the numbers, as they were calling out for it, but it would definitely not have worked on the skiffle and jug band songs. After all, that is what had made us unique, using stomping boards and no drums; pulling in a permanent drummer would have made us the same as the rest. I can see why he wanted one, Colin and I didn't mind for some of the time but didn't see the need, if we were going on in the same vein, for a permanent one. Ray's roots are really rock'n roll which he excels at, and is a cross between ELVIS and LEADBELLY with a bit of LONNIE DONEGAN thrown in. I'm more DONOVAN and LEADBELLY with a bit of early T.REX thrown in. Ray was more to the heavy side and me the lighter. So I can see why Ray wanted a drummer.
That was one reason for the split, the other as I have said was Ray's attitude. Because of the money he thought he should have received, he said in a meeting at a pub that he wanted to write all of the material for the A & B sides. That in a nutshell meant that he would receive all the publishing royalties. Considering that before we had all had a say in all band matters, this was just plain greedy. I for one wasn't trying to step into Ray's shoes, and didn't want to, all I wanted was a fair crack of the whip - the occasional B-side and two or three songs on each album. Ray wanted the lot. I also feel that had some of my songs been used on the albums, it would have opened up a different market for us and we wouldn't have just been a singles band. However, that's the way Ray wanted it - to run the whole show, so we let him have it. If JAGGER had left THE STONES, they would cease to exist. It was the same with Ray if he left, there
really wasn't any MUNGO. But equally if KEITH RICHARDS and BILL WYMAN left, THE STONES would lose all of what they are about. When Colin and I left, MUNGO for what it had been known was dead as a dodo. It was really RAY DORSET alias MUNGO JERRY the medallion man who went on from there.
There is no animosity, just sadness really. Had we stayed together as the original outfit and changed as we needed to, we could still have been going now. Colin and I still do 'LADY ROSE' and 'HAVE A WHIFF' and they still go down as good as ever - the music lives but the band died.
RECORDING HISTORY SONGS THAT WORKED AND THOSE THAT DIDN'T, AND MUSICIANS INVOLVED.
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