Chatterbox, when the stars talk, they talk to
Nick and Sue. Welcome back to the Chatterbox
Redux podcast with Nick and Sue. Our special
guest on this edition is Phil Wright of Paper
Lace. with Chatterbox giving you all you need
to know about musical entertainment. Oh yeah!
Chatterbox, the best interviews with Nick and
Sue. Chatterbox, the best news And now we welcome
Phil Wright from Paperlace. Phil, welcome. How
are you? Hello, Phil. Hello. Nice to be here.
Phil, it's been quite a journey for you. I remember
back in the... You on top of the Pops ran about
74 times. 74, definitely. That was the year.
It was a long story. I mean, we were a band,
a working band, working seven nights a week.
We didn't... We were making records from about
1968, something like that. Then we went on a
TV talent show called Optimity Knocks. I remember
it, yeah. That was when we did the audition in
1970 and we got on the show in 1973. So they
were very keen to see us. Yeah, I'm on that show
as look would have it Peter calendar's wife.
Well, I see so Peter calendar's wife Connie have
to see the show She was a fan of opportunity
knocks. She saw the show and she sort of said
she knew that it should be had written this song
and they were looking to what to do with it basically
and She said oh, what about these guys? You know,
why don't you them you can launch? and a band,
you know, with this new song, why don't you get
in touch with them?" And they did. And we recorded
it in 73. And 74 February entered the charts
about 38, I think, something like that. And,
well, wages weigh all the way up to number one,
not only in the UK, but Australia as well, and
Lord knows where, really. Yeah, yeah, lots of
places South Africa. You were loads of places.
Yeah. Yeah What was it? So going from these sort
of sort of Midlands Northern Workman's Club type
type atmosphere places What was it like to then
suddenly end up on top of the box? Was it a culture
shock or is it just in your stride sort of thing?
And it was all fine. Yeah, I mean Nobody when
I started sort of age 13. I had no sort of No
sort of aspirations to making it, you know, making
it big and being famous and all the rest of it.
Nothing, just wanted to be in a band. And it
was a bit like that all the way along the line,
really. Just wanted to be in a band. Didn't want
to do anything else. And then, you know, you
just, you're in contact with people who are successful
people and successful writers. it was a culture
shock but uh it was sort of turned everything
on its head and uh the world went mad completely
cool how was it though when you uh went from
being real musicians as it were to having to
mime how much awful yeah well on top of the pops
we were in in the well in the early days at the
top of the pops um we we used to uh re -record
a track uh that was something like the record
and then then we'd play to the to the backing
track live most of the time yeah so it wasn't
all mine it was uh you know not sort of lip syncing
those days were yet to come okay so um looks
like it's a Bit of a slower start in the U .S.
though, wasn't it? Because Billy Don't Be a Hero,
if these figures are right, you just made the
Billboard Hot 100, got crawled in at 96. But
the night Chicago died, that did something big
for you, didn't it? I love that song, fantastic.
In actual fact, Billy Don't Be a Hero got to
number one with Bill Donaldson and the Haywoods
in 74. Mitch, Murray and Peter Candler were trying
to do a deal with Mercury and they were a bit
sort of a bit edgy about it and not quite all
the contracts and all the rest of it. There was
a problem of some sort and while they were negotiating,
Bo Donaldson picked the song up and recorded
it and it got to number one but Mitch, Murray
and Peter Candler obviously for them it was a
number one so they weren't that bothered. said
next time, you know, we're going to we're going
to get there. And we released Chicago Diary,
which was amazing, absolutely amazing in those
days because the bands that were actually trying
to get to number one was astronomical. You know,
it was just a look, right place, right time.
Sure. But I mean, Being number one in the UK
is one thing and appearing on Top of the Horses
is one thing, but getting to number one in the
Billboard Top 100 and having to go halfway around,
I mean, did you have to go there for, is there
such a thing as you actually flew halfway around
the world to do a TV thing and then half the
way back? Did it work like that or didn't you
appear on TV shows in the States at the time?
We did a lot of promotional work, but we never
actually did a tour. of the states. We've never
toured the states. I'm negotiating at the moment
because people are interested. But at the time
it was such a massive affair to actually tour
the states because in those days promoters didn't
want to supply anything. You had to have support
from your record company and Mercury weren't
interested in supporting us because they said
basically we can get number one without the band
being here. And they were right. Okay, so I see
that we had a third hit in 1974, Black Eyed Boys.
Seems like you have quite a big following in
Australia all the way through. I mean, did you
actually get around to touring Australia? Yeah,
we toured Australia in 1975. And in actual fact...
our album paper lays a little bit of material
that went gold over there so we got a gold album
from australia fantastic um so going out there
um in 75 it was well it was like like the Beatles
been on tour all the airport when we landed ah
i couldn't believe it you know the the the sort
of top um sort of roof garden bit was lined with
fans and they were going mad and limousines picked
us up and all the rest of it and we had a great
tour and in actual fact we went back slightly
different lineup but two of the originals myself
and Cliff Fish the bass player and we went back
in 2017 and we had just as terrific a time. There
was lots of people there that had actually come
in 75, but they brought the kids with them. Some
of them brought the grandkids with them. But
yeah, it was good. It was a really nice time.
I mean, they are terrific audiences. There's
no two ways about it. Australia are a great audience
to play to. Excellent, excellent. Now I mean
obviously your origins are Nottingham and have
you always stayed in that sort of area? You're
still sort of like a bit big as far as gigging
around Nottingham is concerned as well? We don't
gig around Nottingham at all really. Everything's
done away from Nottingham. But I still live here
and yeah I've lived here all my life. I was born
here. What's happened since though, Phil? Because
obviously you're talking about touring and maybe
the States and things. Let's talk about that
at the end. But in the meantime, after that small
hit in 1978, has it been almost non -stop touring?
How's it been for you? No, not at all. We generally
do, possibly... 15 gigs a year. Now we've managed
to get some recording done. We re -recorded a
couple of the album tracks that we're gonna,
well, when we tour, we're gonna sell a CD, that
sort of thing, and there's a couple of tracks.
All the stuff that we actually play in the set
is all paperless material. It's either off the
album or it's the singles. Okay, yeah, sure.
And I see you've had some stuff brought out on
Cherry Red Records as well. Yeah, good company.
So you've got some back catalogue on there as
well, which is great. So what can we really look
for? I mean, what's going to be next? To get
back into gigging. That's the main thing, really.
I think it would be nice. I've got some gigs
in. We generally, we do a lot of the 70s things
at the holiday camps, that sort of thing. So,
Bucklins, you know, they're on board and we'll
be doing some, I think there's a couple of festivals,
one in Worcester, summertime festival, that's
coming up. I mean, I do a thing with the tremolotes.
I play drums. I joined when Dave Mundan, God
rest his soul, he was gigging but he had to have
two operations on his knees. I did a few gigs
and Dave decided that he wasn't going to play
drums again, he was going to sing on the front.
So he said, would you like to become a permanent
member? And I said, yeah, terrific. I know I
grew up with the Tremolo's catalogue, so fine.
So we go out now because of Chip and one or two,
one or two sort of contractual things, we go
out as the Trems. Cool, lovely, wonderful. When
you go out as Paper Lace, how many, are you the
only original member or do you have, is there
more than just you as an original member? No,
there's two of us. Two of you, brilliant, perfect.
two of us the uh as i say cliff fish oh he's
a bass player you did so yeah and um he's uh
so we've got the rhythm section basically is
there and we've got two new guys dave major on
keys and uh phil hendricks on uh on uh guitar
cool no wonderful Okay, so we're looking forward
to seeing where your next movie is. What I'd
really like to do, if it's okay with you Phil,
if you do pull off that American tour or when
you're... Do chuck us an email and we can always
come and have a chat about it and it'd be really
good because that to me is... Not just that,
but if we're going to Europe or around the UK
or festivals, getting active again is a very
big step, especially for a group that, like Paper
Lace, is still in existence. So you are one of
the guys from the era that, you know, very good
era it was in music too. So if you could have
done anything different, what would it have been
in anything in your life? I think anything in
my life. I've got very few regrets. So yeah,
I think I would do everything exactly the same
again, but this time I'd make sure that all the
contracts were right and the deals were better.
Sure, sure. No, that's very good. Very good,
very good. Let's take ourselves into a year's
time where you've basically done that. Let's
go two years. Are you just literally happy with
gigging now? Is that how it's going to be, do
you think? I am gigging and recording. We've
done a bit of writing as well. So there's one
or two things that we're not sort of completely
retired. But there's plenty of oldies still doing
it. So I'm blessed in actual fact because my
voice... my singing voice hasn't changed. And
we sing everything in the same key that we recorded
it in. So it sounds very like the original. And
I think that's why people are dear to us, really.
Sue says you really don't look your age. Oh,
thank you. And the other thing, Phil, of course,
is a true musician doesn't retire. They drop
in the end, but they don't retire. That's right.
Sue's got a question for you. I've got two questions
for you Phil. How did you come up with the name
Paperlace? The band that I joined in 67 that
eventually became Paperlace was a band called
Music Box and we did a couple of... bits of recording
and all the rest of it as Music Box. But we did
in 1969, we went professional because I was an
apprentice at the time. We went professional.
We went into a residency in Rochdale, a Mecca
dance hall called Tiffany's in Rochdale. And
we got six months in there. And what we decided
was we will come out of Rochdale with a new name
and a new attitude. will do everything and we
were looking we were looking actually we were
looking sports pages at racehorses because some
of the names of racehorses make really good band
names really good and and then one of the guys
picked up this book of things to make and he
said oh look at this he was looking through it
looking through the index he said what's that
and and it's where you fold a piece of paper
tear little bits out of it and when you undo
it when you open it out it's a doily and he said
oh paper lace and we all looked at one another
and said paper lace what a great name yeah i
like that and phil have you got an autobiography
sort of yes i'm i decided to write uh i decided
to write a book i started it about 18 months
ago 18 months two years ago and uh i'm in about
150 pages cool but it but it was going to be
my life as a drummer but uh but i talked to my
wife and she said uh well 13 years up to that
point why don't you it'll it'll sort of give
people an insight if you start and it'd be good
for the family so it's from my first memories
i'm about three and uh and it carries on from
there Elton John in actual fact uh he's a He
keeps his eye on sort of upcoming talent and
stuff like that. He likes to be associated with
it, likes to help people wherever they can. But
in 1974, when we were on Top of the Pops, I was
sort of standing around, we were waiting, which
you do for most of the time at Top of the Pops.
At the core of my eye, I saw John coming over
to me and bear in mind, at this point, I'm a
massive fan that he's a, you know, not worthy
sort of thing. He's just unbeatable. He came
over and his arm went out and he shook hands
and he said, congratulations on your number one
in the States. Wow. I nearly fainted and I uttered
something. unintelligible it was just uh just
and i thought cracking Elton John what a great
thing nice very nice very nice yeah brilliant
uh phil is there perhaps anybody that you dead
or alive that you uh would perhaps like to have
performed with over the years Elton John for
a musician that's that's oh it's almost Yeah,
it's an endless list. There are people that I
admire, that I would love to play with, and yeah,
just too numerous to mention really. I can't
think of any one person. Okay, okay. Phil, do
tell our listeners about a website that you might
have, Facebook groups, Facebook, anything you've
got. If you're chucking at the listeners now,
please, Phil. Yeah, yeah, well we're on Facebook
if you look at the original 70s paper lace and
our website is www .originalpaperlace .com and
there's things on there, there's photographs
on there, there's new videos on there, lots of
pictures and sort of the discography of paper
lace and if there's any gigs coming up That end
of it has been empty for a long time, but I intend
to update that and let the fans know that there's
things coming on. That's great, Phil. Sounds
like we've got a very exciting period ahead of
you in paper lace and we're looking forward to
it. Like I say, do keep in touch and do let us
know what you're doing next, Phil. We'll have
you back on for a chat some other time. It's
been an absolute pleasure, Phil. Thank you very
much, Phil. Take care. Cheers, Phil. Thank you.
Take care. This edition of the Chatterbox Redux
podcast was presented by Nick and Sue and our
special guest was Phil Wright of Paper Lace.
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Bye bye.