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. All inquiries please to nickelbum at myyahoo
.com Alternatively, you could write to us or send press releases or whatever you'd like to. P .O. Box 26, The Old Observer Building, Telford Road, St. Leonard's -on -Sea, East Sussex, England, TN 38, 9LZ. We thank you very much for your company and look forward to welcoming you again next time for another Chatterbox Redux podcast when our special guest will be former Radio 1 DJ... television presenter and co -founder and presenter of the Heritage Chart, Mike Reid. Catch you then. Bye bye.