Kursaal Flyers -

Kursaal Flyers were an English comedy-rock/pub band from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, that released two albums on Decca-subsidiary UK Records in 1975, followed by Golden Mile on CBS in 1976. Guitarist Graeme Douglas joined Eddie and the Hot Rods in time for their 1977 sophomore effort Life on the Line. Drummer Will Birch and late-period guitarist John Wicks subsequently formed The Records.

Members: Will Birch (drums), Richie Bull (bass, banjo), Paul Shuttleworth (vocals), Vic Collins (pedal steel guitar, 1973-77), Graeme Douglas (lead guitar, 1973-76), Dave Hatfield (bass, 1973-74), Barry Martin (lead guitar, 1976-77), John Wicks (rhythm guitar, 1977)

Background

Kursaal Flyers formed in October 1973 when six veterans of the Southend-on-Sea pub and cabaret circuit—vocalist Paul Shuttleworth, guitarist Graeme Douglas, drummer Will Birch, pedal steel player Vic Collins, banjoist–bassist Richie Bull, and bassist Dave Hatfield—joined forces after assorted interactions in prior unsigned groups. They took their name from a defunct local amusement ride.

In early 1974, Kursaal Flyers made their live debut at the Blue Boar pub with a setlist dominated by country-rock standards. As they gained momentum, they introduced original songs and earned London club dates through connections with Dr. Feelgood. By January 1975, all but Hatfield turned professional and signed to UK Records, a Decca imprint run by producer–personality Jonathan King.

Chocs Away

Kursaal Flyers released their debut album, Chocs Away, in August 1975 on UK Records.

The album blends pub-rock energy with country-rock ornamentation, led by the interplay between guitarist–pianist Graeme Douglas and pedal steel guitarist Vic Collins, whose overlapping parts alternately twine and offset each other. Richie Bull’s bass and Will Birch’s drums anchor the material with clipped, driving backbeats and steady underpinning, reinforcing each song’s rhythmic core while adding short fills and push-pull accents. Douglas and Birch wrote nine of the twelve tracks.

A1. “Pocket Money” (4:40) – Douglas, Birch
A2. “Hit Records” (2:40) – Douglas, Birch
A3. “Kung Fu” (3:18) – Douglas, Birch
A4. “Tennessee” (3:37) – Douglas, Birch
A5. “Chocs Away” (2:17) – Bull
A6. “Speedway” (5:00) – Douglas, Birch

B1. “Brakeman” (2:59) – Douglas, Birch
B2. “Now I’m Back” (3:30) – Douglas, Birch
B3. “Yellow Sox” (3:27) – Douglas, Birch
B4. “Silver Wings” (4:23) – Douglas
B5. “Chocs Away (Reprise)” (1:02) – Bull
B6. “Cross Country” (4:53) – Jupp

Sessions took place at Escape Studios with engineer Tony Taverner and producer Hugh Murphy. Mixing occurred at Olympic Studios. The sleeve, printed by Gerhard Kaiser GmbH, features a layout by Grove·Lane. Paul Conroy managed the band on behalf of King of England B.V.

The front cover features a stylized cartoon of a vintage biplane silhouetted against a bright orange sun, flying against a blue sky dotted with clouds. The plane, depicted in dark chocolate tones, appears to be melting mid-flight—chocolate drips trail from its wings and fuselage, reinforcing the pun in the album’s title Chocs Away! The phrase, a playful twist on the RAF command “Chocks Away!”, is emblazoned in red at the top left of the sun, above the plane’s wing.

The back cover splits into two diagonal halves: a melted chocolate bar appears at the top, its segments stamped “FLY.” Below, a bright red panel displays headshots of the five band members, each in striped shirts and stylized line-drawing caricature form. Each is labeled with a personal slogan—Desperation (Will Birch), Pacification (Vic Collins), Expectation (Graeme Douglas), Acclamation (Richie Bull), and Realisation (Paul Shuttleworth)—adding an ironic narrative arc to their lineup. A red circle at top-right lists the album’s track titles by side. The cheeky tone and chocolate visuals reinforce the band’s humorous and theatrical approach.

“Speedway” backed with “Chocs Away” appeared on July 4, 1975, as the band’s debut single on UK Records (UK 2012 001). They followed it with “Hit Records” backed with “Brakeman” on November 21, 1975 (UK 116).

The Great Artiste

Kursaal Flyers released their debut album, The Great Artiste, in February 1975 on UK.

The album mixes upbeat pub-rock structures with arch lyrical themes and tightly arranged instrumentation, centered on the contrast between Graeme Douglas’s clipped guitar leads and Vic Collins’s ornamental pedal steel accents. Will Birch and Richie Bull anchor the set with an understated rhythmic backbone, creating space for subtle instrumental shifts and ensemble-style phrasing. Douglas and Birch wrote eight of the ten tracks, with additional writing input from Paul Shuttleworth and Richie Bull on one track and a single contribution by Nick Lowe.

A1. “Ugly Guys” (3:09) – Douglas, Birch
A2. “The Great Artiste” (3:31) – Douglas, Birch
A3. “Fall Like the Rain” (4:28) – Douglas, Birch
A4. “Cruisin’ for Love” (4:12) – Douglas, Birch
A5. “Back to the Book” (2:13) – Douglas, Birch

B1. “Palais de Danse” (2:38) – Shuttleworth, Bull
B2. “Pain and Misery” (3:31) – Douglas, Birch
B3. “Hypochondriac” (3:32) – Douglas, Birch
B4. “Television” (4:08) – Nick Lowe
B5. “Drinking Alone” (3:14) – Douglas, Birch

Sessions took place at Chipping Norton Recording Studios, where the band self-produced the album with assistance from engineer Barry Hammond.

Andrew Douglas designed the artwork, and Adrian Boot provided photography. The front of The Great Artiste mimics a pulp movie poster, with the band name in exaggerated script and the title in block lettering below. A glamorous blonde pin-up, styled like a WWII bomber girl, poses center-right in an unbuttoned khaki uniform, smiling with one arm raised. Behind her, bombers fly above silhouetted soldiers on a battlefield, rendered in grainy black-and-white. The lower caption reads: “People thought they were mama’s boys until they broke loose…”—a faux-dramatic tagline that frames the band’s shift toward punchier material with a theatrical sense of irony. The retro aesthetic matches the album’s tongue-in-cheek tone.

The back cover continues the parody theme with mock comic-strip panels of the five members dressed as WWII pilots, each delivering lines in speech bubbles like comic-book heroes. Each character is given a short narrative or motto, such as Graeme Douglas exclaiming “By thunder we’ve done it!” and Vic Collins defying orders with “But we’ll see about that!” A blue background and stencil-style typography mimic wartime propaganda. A round white insert at right lists the track titles by side. The credits give a nod to J.K. (likely Jonathan King). The whole layout parodies war epics while positioning the band as rebellious underdogs, matching the album’s satirical slant.

“Cruisin’ for Love” appeared as a UK single on April 23, 1976 (UK 129), backed with the non-album track “Slimmin’ (For the Women).”

Golden Mile

Kursaal Flyers released their debut album, Golden Mile, in October 1976 on CBS.

The album merges tightly arranged pub rock with narrative pop flourishes and ornate production layers, led by guitarist Graeme Douglas and pedal-steel player Vic Collins, whose alternating leads and fills frame the vocal interplay and layered choruses.

Bassist Richie Bull and drummer Will Birch underpin the material with a locked-in backbeat that supports both slow-build refrains and rhythmically clipped verses. Douglas and Birch wrote or co-wrote half the album, while vocalist Paul Shuttleworth, Collins, and Bull contributed to the remainder. They recorded the album with Wombles mastermind Mike Batt, who applied a Spectorian wall-of-sound production on “Little Does She Know,” the opening track and lead single that became their best-known song.

A1. “Little Does She Know” (5:20) – Douglas, Shuttleworth, Birch
A2. “One Arm Bandit” (3:05) – Douglas, Shuttleworth, Birch
A3. “Drinking Socially” (6:47) – Shuttleworth, Collins
A4. “Two Left Feet” (3:50) – Douglas, Birch
A5. “Modern Lovers” (2:28) – Douglas, Birch

B1. “Street of the Music” (3:24) – Shuttleworth, Collins
B2. “Radio Romance” (3:38) – Shuttleworth, Collins, Birch
B3. “When the Band’s on the Stand” (3:42) – Shuttleworth, Bull, Collins, Birch
B4. “Detroit Tin” (3:32) – Shuttleworth, Collins
B5. “Third Finger Left Hand” (3:22) – Douglas, Birch
B6. “Ready to Go” (3:26) – Bull, Birch

Sessions took place during July and August 1976 at Wessex Sound Studios and Lansdowne Studios, engineered by Tim Friese-Greene and Bob Butterworth. Mike Batt produced the album and arranged the orchestral parts.

Paul Shuttleworth designed the artwork, featuring photography by Peter Lavery and Mike Putland, and illustrations by Peter Knock. Hangar Management and Paul Conroy handled the band’s management.

On October 22, 1976, CBS lifted “Little Does She Know” as a single (b/w “Drinking Socially”). The Kursaal Flyers mimed the song amid oversized detergent boxes for the November 25 broadcast of Top of the Pops, which also featured in-studio numbers by Billy Ocean (“Stop Me (If You’ve Heard It All Before)”), Cliff Richard (“Hey Mr. Dream Maker”), and Elton John (“Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word”). They returned for the opening slot on the December 9 TotP broadcast, which also featured an in-studio appearance by Jethro Tull (“Ring Out Solstice Bells”), a video by ABBA (“Money Money Money”), and a Legs & Co routine to Mike Oldfield (“Portsmouth”).

“Little Does She Know” reached No. 14 on the UK Singles Chart. CBS issued “Radio Romance” as the follow-up on February 11, 1977, backed with “Girl Talk” (CBS 4973).

Five Live Kursaals

In August 1977, CBS issued Five Live Kursaals, a document of their May showcase at London’s Marquee Club.

The album captures the band’s tight, high-energy stage set with dual interplay between lead guitarist Barry Martin and pedal steel player Vic Collins, trading clean lines and brief fills while framing the vocals with counter-melodic phrases. Will Birch and Richie Bull form a steady backbeat foundation, shifting seamlessly between clipped two-step patterns and straight-ahead pub rock rhythms. Birch wrote or co-wrote the majority of the material, with remaining credits split between Shuttleworth, Collins, Douglas, Bull, and select outside writers.

A1. “Original Model” (3:02) – Birch
A2. “Yellow Sox” (3:20) – Douglas, Birch
A3. “Pocket Money” (3:43) – Douglas, Birch
A4. “Cruisin’ for Love” (3:10) – Douglas, Birch
A5. “The Sky’s Falling In On Our Love” (2:10) – Bull, Birch
A6. “Little Does She Know” (3:40) – Douglas, Shuttleworth, Birch

B1. “Street of the Music” (3:33) – Shuttleworth, Collins
B2. “T.V. Dinners” (2:52) – Bull, Birch
B3. “Speedway” (4:37) – Murdock, Birch
B4. “Revolver” (2:42) – Shuttleworth, Collins
B5. “On My Mind” (1:20) – Mike Berry
B6. “Anna” (2:49) – Arthur Alexander
B7. “Friday on My Mind” (2:31) – Harry Vanda, George Young

The band recorded the album across two nights, May 3 and 4, 1977, using the Manor Mobile unit. Tim Friese-Greene engineered the recording. Mixing took place at Jackson’s Studio, Rickmansworth, in July. Vic Maile produced the album. Paul Shuttleworth designed the sleeve; Adrian Boot and William Finnegan handled the photography. CBS pressed and distributed the LP under its own imprint.

CBS issued “The Sky’s Falling In On Our Love” backed with “Revolver” on August 5, 1977 (CBS 5498). A second single, “T.V. Dinners” backed again with “Revolver,” followed on October 14, 1977 (CBS 5706).

The Kursaals – “Television Generation”

In October 1977, CBS issued “Television Generation” as a standalone single by the Kursaal Flyers (CBS 5771). Written by Richie Bull and Will Birch, the track pairs clipped rhythm guitar with doubled lead breaks and layered vocal lines over a driving backbeat. Muff Winwood and Rhett Davies produced the track with a tightened arrangement that reflected the band’s shift toward contemporary, high-energy stylings.

A. “Television Generation” (2:32)

The B-side, “Revolver” (2:42), written by Paul Shuttleworth and Vic Collins and produced by Vic Maile, was taken from the live album Five Live Kursaals (S 82253). Winwood—the onetime Spencer Davis Group bassist—worked earlier with Sparks and recently with fellow pre-wave acts Burlesque, Cado Belle, Deaf School, and the Fabulous Poodles.

Discography: