Chart entered : 27 November 1976
Chart peak : 7
After nearly four hit-filled years Mud became the first of the glam rock giants to have their account closed. They'd actually shed the glam trappings quite early on after "Lonely This Christmas " became their second number one after which Chinn and Chapman started exploiting Les Gray's ability to sound like Elvis. The band soon got bored of this and in the summer of 1975 chose not to renew their contract at RAK and signed for Private Stock , dipping a toe into disco waters with "Shake It Down" and then tuneless heavy metal with "Nite on the Tiles". The latter unsurprisingly didn't chart so they went for a cover to get back on track.
Their version of Bill Withers's easy-to-play altruistic classic is decorated with seventies synth sounds although the middle "Just call on me brother " section has just percussion and bass behind the vocals. The final verse is a cappella before an instrumental coda where church and sleigh bells remind us this was aimed at the Christmas market. And just to hammer the point home , grandiose strings arrive in an echo of Greg Lake's I Believe In Father Christmas from the year before. The boys' harmonies are good but Les doesn't really have the voice to do the song justice. Nevertheless the single worked and got them a Christmas Top Ten placing.
So why did it go so horribly wrong for them straight afterwards ? Well firstly the band was then put on hold as Les tested the waters for a solo career with a horrible supper club version of "A Groovy Kind of Love" where he seems to be trying on a Colin Blunstone breathy style of singing and sounds well off key. It's ghastly and was lucky to get as far as number 32 in Februrary 1977.
By the time that had exited the charts Private Stock were in deep trouble financially and the band decamped to RCA. Their next single in April 1977 was " Slow Talking Boy" a John Kongos song given a quirky synth-pop makeover. They got on Top of the Pops, one of two wild card slots they received from producer Robin Nash as payback for their willingness to be clowns in previous appearances. It did them no good and the single stiffed. "Just Try ( A Little Tenderness ) " written by Rob Davis and Ray Stiles sounds like Shakin Stevens singing with the Bay City Rollers and an appearance on Marc Bolan's tv show couldn't save it. Talking of Shaky, Les had his next go at solo fame in September 1977 with "What Do You Wanna Make Those Eyes At Me For " ( later covered by the Welsh warbler ) ; this time he sounds like Gilbert O Sullivan backed by Manhattan Transfer . It did nothing and wasn't helped by Private Stock releasing a song from the vaults "Beating Round The Bush" which sounds like they were thinking of going back to sounding like The Sweet again.
They got another chance on Top of the Pops in March 1978 with their version of "Cut Across Shorty" as popularised by Eddie Cochran which sounds like The Rubettes but again nobody was interested. Gallingly former label mate Suzi Quatro was on the same show having returned to the Top 10 with If You Can't Give Me Love. Their next single was a limp version of "Drift Away" in May and the last single to feature all the original line up was "Why Do Fools Fall In Love/ Book of Love" although the lead vocal on the first part of the medley was handled by a new face on keyboards Brian Tatum.
RCA dropped them and Les quit the band ; I'm not sure which came first. Les was first out of the traps with a country rock version of The Merseybeats' "I Think Of You " in Februrary 1979. It's probably the best of his solo recordings but he needed something much stronger in 1979. The other guys replaced him with a female rock singer Margo Buchanan and got a deal with Carrrere releasing a version of Dr Feelgood's "Drop Everything And Run" . It was a brave move but didn't work out. The song's not really hit single material and the production is too murky.
RCA put out their cod-reggae number "You'll Like It " in December 1979 to try and take advantage of the ska boom but their confidence was misplaced. The current line up tried once more with "Rico" released under the pseudonym Ring which is a passable attempt at modern pop with some good bass work by Ray but it's again let down by poor production.
The band then split up. Drummer Dave Mount gave up the music business and went into selling kitchens , advertising and selling insurance. Ray and Rob for the time being played together on the pub circuit though both would see their fortunes improve in time. With the name abandoned Les picked it up and put together some new touring line-ups. In 1981 he tried to take advantage of the medley craze and put out "Rock On Elvis" as Tulsa McLean. It sounds like it was put together in 5 minutes and was ignored. He put out another single "Don't You Say It" in 1982 which appropriates the New Pop tropes of its time in a competent enough manner but was only released on a tiny label.
The last release to bear the name Mud was the single "Lipstick On Your Collar" in 1983 credited to "Mud featuring Les Gray" , a fast rocking version of the Connie Francis done a la Gary Glitter and it's actually not bad. They got to perform it on 3-2-1 billed just as Mud ; you knew an act was at the end of the pier when they took Ted Rogers' shilling. I was shocked at Les's appearance; most of his hair had gone and he looked much older than the gap of five years since the last TOTP appearance should have warranted.
In 1988 Ray was pulled out of obscurity when he was invited into The Hollies just before they hit big again with He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother and he's been there ever since so we'll pick up his story when we say goodbye to them.
Two years later the quartet got back together one last time to play at Dave's wedding. By this point Les was hitting the sauce heavily and looking pretty ravaged. He was reduced to playing the holiday camps in a loose partnership with the one guy who looked worse than he did , Sweet's Brian Connolly. God knows what booking agents thought when those two ghouls shuffled in to sign the paperwork.
Rob joined Darts in 1980 and played on their last three hits but left when they were dropped by Magnet. He scraped by on session work for years but at the beginning of the millennium he underwent one of the most remarkable career resurrections in pop when he started helping to write huge-selling dance pop hits for Spiller and Kylie Minogue ; you can hear distinct echoes of Mud's disco period in Groovejet ( If This Ain't Love ). In 2004 he had the sad task of talking to Radio Two about his ex-school mate Les ( you would never have believed that if you compared their latterday appearance ) who died in Portugal following treatment for throat cancer. Two years later Dave also passed away having taken an overdose for reasons which remain unknown.
There is a current band called Mud 2 formed by a couple of guys who toured with Les in the early eighties. Rob has semi-endorsed them by once appearing on stage with them.
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