‘Mud: The Singles 1973-80’ reviewed

Line-up changes inevitably happened in this period but in their peak years Mud consisted of Les Gray on vocals, Rob Davis on guitar, Dave Mount on drums and Ray Stiles on bass. The band were long in the tooth before their first hit, playing the cabaret circuit (reportedly doing Cream and Doors covers!) and appearing unsuccessfully on Opportunity Knocks.

It was when they signed to RAK Records and came under the guidance of record producer Mickie Most and the hit-making songwriting partnership of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman (Chinnichap) that their career really took off. The first two singles on this compilation, Crazy and Hypnosis, despite being strong tracks were just Mud singing over a backing track recorded by session musicians including Chas Hodges, later of Chas and Dave, Dave Mattacks of the Fairports and Pip Williams (later producer for Status Quo).

Their subsequent brace of singles, the magnificent Dyna-mite and Tiger Feet are pop classics and their long in the tooth mixture of old-style rock and roll and stomping tunes suddenly started appealing to the kids, making them regulars on Top of the Pops. In 1974 alone, their peak year, they had four top ten hits.

In a Melody Maker review of a gig from 1974 the reviewer writes of the audience, “The atmosphere is reminiscent of a school outing to a seedy sea-side panto organised by a Religious Instruction mistress, who’s missed the coach. Boys are burping. Girls are picking their noses. There’s a jubilant sense of freedom in the air.”

Rock and roll mixed with crowd noises and “party atmosphere”, on songs sung by a geezer who sometime tried to sound like Elvis, was an endearing combination. They even appeared in a (not very good) film Never Too Young to Rock,which starred other glam bands, along with Freddie Jones, Sheila Steafel and Sally James. After the long run of hits, the quality (that hadn’t been much evident on their self-penned B sides anyway) inevitably started to drop.

Les Gray went solo, and his solo tracks are included here. Dave Mount did a bit of acting and Rob Davis and Ray Stiles had a breakaway project called Roly, also represented on this set. Interesting cuts from the later period on here are Roly Pin, an instrumental that Bob Stanley included on his Three-Day Week compilation, and an instrumental spoof of the Ventures song Walk Don’t Run called Run Don’t Walk

Two of the band are no longer with us but Rob Davis had a later career co-writing songs such as Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out of My Head and the Spiller/Sophie Ellis-Bextor track Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love).

This appealing box set is excellently packaged and includes informative sleeve notes, and it’s great to listen to the hits again whilst taking in some ropey but interesting B sides. Relive your ‘70s childhood here!