The Kursaal Flyers were a British pop band, formed in

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north ...

in 1973. They are most famous for their 1976 single "Little Does She Know" (which was a top 20 hit) and were the subject of a BBC documentary following them on tour in 1975.

Original members

*Paul Shuttleworth (born 24 December 1947,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

) -

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

*Richie Bull (born Richard Bull, 23 October 1948, Corringham,

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, an ...

) -

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

*Graeme Douglas (born Graeme John Douglas, 22 January 1950,

Rochford Rochford is a town in Essex, England, north of Southend-on-Sea, from London and from Chelmsford, the county town. At the 2011 census, the civil parish, which includes the town and London Southend Airport, had a population of 8,471. Histor ...

) -

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

, later replaced by Barry Martin * Will Birch (born William Birch, 12 September 1948, in

Stratford, London Stratford is a town in east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. Until 1965 it was within the historic county of Essex. Part of the Lower Lea Valley, Stratford is situated 6 miles (10 km) east-northeast of Cha ...

) -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumstick ...

*Vic Collins (born Victor Collins, 10 September 1950,

) -

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all steel guitars, it can ...

*Dave Hatfield -

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and sc ...

(left in 1974)

Career

The group formed when Shuttleworth, Douglas, Birch, Collins, Bull and Hatfield, who had all performed locally in various combinations around Southend, got together in October 1973 to form a new band. They made their first appearance together as the Kursaal Flyers – named after the imitation train which was used to advertise Southend's famous amusement hall, the Kursaal, which had recently closed – at the Blue Boar pub in Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea, in February 1974, mainly playing covers of

country rock Country rock is a genre of music which fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal ...

songs but over time increasingly writing their own material. Through contacts in the band with Dr. Feelgood, they played some support slots in

, where they were seen by influential agents and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

s. All bar Hatfield turned professional at the start of 1975, signed for

Jonathan King Jonathan King (born Kenneth George King; 6 December 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. He first came to prominence in 1965 when " Everyone's Gone to the Moon", a song that he wrote and sang while still an undergraduate ...

's UK Records, and released their first

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

''Chocs Away''. Although the singles "Speedway" and "Hit Records" received some

airplay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day ( spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in ...

, the band failed to garner any commercial success. Their second album, ''The Great Artiste'', also sold poorly. Nevertheless the band developed a solid live reputation on the London pub rock scene, with an eclectic mixture of original material and cover versions, fronted by Paul Shuttleworth's " wide boy" persona. In 1976, they signed with the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed d ...

, and recorded their third album, ''The Golden Mile'', with

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

Mike Batt Michael Philip Batt, LVO (born 6 February 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, record producer, director and conductor. He was formerly the Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry. Having achieved substantia ...

. One of their

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

s, "Little Does She Know", was singled out by Batt for an over-the-top

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...

style production. Paul Conroy, the band's then

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

, arranged for the group to perform the song on

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 1 ...

's ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of ...

'' in November 1976, surrounded by giant detergent boxes and laundry machines. The single became their only hit record, reaching number 14 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top ...

. However, Graeme Douglas was concerned about the over-commercialisation of the group's music and left to join Eddie and the Hot Rods, being replaced by Barry Martin. The group toured widely and issued another album, ''Five Live Kursaals'', but failed to gain any further commercial success and, after numerous personnel changes, the band disintegrated in late 1977. Following the Kursaals' demise, Shuttleworth released several

solo Solo or SOLO may refer to: Arts and entertainment Comics * ''Solo'' (DC Comics), a DC comics series * Solo, a 1996 mini-series from Dark Horse Comics Characters * Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character * Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ' ...

records A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

, Douglas enjoyed success with Eddie and the Hot Rods, and Birch formed

the Records The Records were an English power pop band formed in 1978. They are best remembered for the hit single and cult favourite "Starry Eyes". Music career The Records formed out of the ashes of the Kursaal Flyers, a pub rock group featuring drum ...

. The group reformed for tours in 1985 and 1988, and in 2001 they reformed on a more permanent basis. In 2009, Collins became manager of Back To Square One, an adolescent four-piece rock band from

Shoeburyness Shoeburyness (; also called Shoebury) is a suburb of the city of Southend-on-Sea, in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. east of the city centre. It was an urban district of Essex from 1894 to 1933, when ...

and Great Wakering in Southend. In 2003, Shuttleworth and Collins formed the Country Rock band the Ugly Guys, with former Jerry the Ferret guitarist Steve Oliver, Andy Farrell, bass, ex of the Hamsters and Bob Clouter on drums.

Discography

Studio albums

*''Chocs Away!'' (1975, UK Records) *''The Great Artiste'' (1976, UK Records) *''Golden Mile'' (1976,

) *''A Former Tour de Force is Forced to Tour'' (1988, Waterfront Records)

Live albums

*''Five Live Kursaals'' (1977, CBS)

Singles

References

External links

Biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

History of the Kursaal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kursaal Flyers, The 1973 establishments in England 1977 disestablishments in England English rock music groups Music in Southend-on-Sea Musical groups established in 1973 Musical groups disestablished in 1977 British pub rock music groups