The Ugly Guys are a UK band that specialises in a brand of music now referred to as Americana. They have had worldwide success with their version of Toby Keith’s “Don’t Let The Old Man In”. Their latest album on Conquest Music is a collection of their favourite songs called “ Cover Your Tracks”.
Back in the heady days of Pub Rock, a band arrived on the scene that was a little different to most. They had a pedal steel player, and their lead singer seemed to base his look on George Cole’s ‘Flash Harry’ in the St. Trinians movies. The band were, of course, The Kursaal Flyers, and they would go on to become one of the more commercially successful bands on the pub rock circuit, though that success would, ultimately, be their undoing.
Though they enjoyed a great reputation as a live act (and, having seen them, it was well deserved) they struggled to transfer that energy to record and their first two albums, “Chocs Away”, and the “Great Artiste”, didn’t sell well. For their third album, “The Golden Mile” (1976), they turned to Mike Batt as producer, taking them in a more pop-oriented direction, and he gave them their only hit record, a single from the album, called ‘Little Does She Know’. Perhaps unfortunately, Batt achieved this success through a completely over-the-top, Phil Spector style production, which had little in common with the Kursaal’s stage sound. It was, it now seems, the kiss of death for the Kursaals and, by 1977, it was all over for a band that had promised so much (though there have been subsequent reunions).
Fast forward to 2003 and, out of the ashes of The Kursaal Flyers, we get The Ugly Guys (named from a Kursaal’s song). What few people knew at the time was that the Kursaal Flyers started out as a country rock covers band, hence the pedal steel guitar of Vic Collins, and that love of country rock never deserted Collins and lead singer Paul Shuttleworth. In 2003 they formed the band that currently consists of the two ex-Kursaals plus guitarist Steve Oliver (ex-Jerry The Ferret), former Pinkee, Nevil Kiddier, on bass and ex-Mickey Jupp sticksman, Bob Clouter, on drums.
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