FOR Mud, success, when it finally came, was a validation. Formed in Mitcham in 1967 by singer Les Gray (who died in 2004), guitarist Rob Davis, bassist Ray Stiles and drummer Dave Mount (who died in 2006), they released their first single – the psych-pop “Flower Power” – the same year. They spent the next six years on the road in the Midlands and North, playing working man’s clubs, pubs, cabaret and university halls – sometimes all in one weekend.
“Les never had a great voice but he was an amazing frontman and that helped us develop a big following,” says Davis, who still occasionally performs as Mud with Stiles. “It was a tough circuit and we had to be good. We’d do pop and heavy metal in the same set. We did anything, from oldies to the latest chart hits.”
Mud’s versatility and willingness to entertain and compromise appealed to Mickie Most’s RAK Records as well as Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman – aka Chinnichap – the songwriters and producers who had turned Sweet into stars. Mud’s first two Chinnichap compositions both went Top 20, but Mud worried that wasn’t enough. When The Sweet turned down “Dyna-Mite” in 1973, Mud seized the moment and took it to No 4 – beginning a run of seven Top 10 hits, including three No 1s.
Their first to hit the top spot, “Tiger Feet” was released in January 1974, becoming the biggest-selling single of the yeara pair of Christmas tree baubles for – and a one-piece bodysuit the rest of the band called the “wedding dress”. “Tiger Feet” even had a novelty dance, performed on by the band’s roadies. One of them, Phil Bowdery, is now executive president of Live Nation. He’s not the only Mud alumnus to hit the heights. Chapman worked with Blondie, Stiles joined The Hollies, while Davis, inspired by Chinn and Chapman, turned to songwriting. His hits include co-writing a pair of earworms to rival “Tiger Feet” – Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)” and Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”.
