Robin Smith ‘has a go’ at Mickie Most’s latest bunch of successful ‘youngsters’

Ain’t they cute?
Let’s hear it for these likely lads from sunny Weston Super Mare, hoping to make it further up the charts with ‘Lay Your Love On Me’. Girls, don’t you just want to scream your little hearts out?
On ‘Top Of The Pops’ Racey gave a passable impression of being boy-next-door teenagers. Actually, they’re all over 25 and have been touring West Country pubs and clubs for years.
They’d still be there now, except for the arrival of Mickie Most and the RAK machine. One of Racey’s friends rushed up to London with some of their tapes and searched out where Mickie lived. Most agreed to listen to the tapes and he was so impressed that he went to Weston to see the lads in action. A record contract was shortly to follow.
“We never knew anything about our friend taking the tapes to Mickie, “says Richard Gower 28-year-old keyboards player, guitarist and vocalist.” Obviously, Weston Super Mare isn’t exactly the best place to play if you want recognition – so it was like a dream come true.
“The single is a happy party type song, nothing really serious.”
Exactly. RAK seem to have a habit of turning out bands who produce happy sing along singles. They wind up on a musical scrapheap degrading themselves by appearing in silly white suits and appealing to girls often half their age.
“We’re not going all out for the teeny bop market,” says Richard. “We’re not being manufactured and Mickie Most is not manipulating uns. I think Mickie has frequently been misunderstood. He appeared on ‘New Faces’ and people called him a bastard because he was honest.
“Many people in the business are jealous, because he started from nothing and worked his way up. He’s been involved with some of this country’s greatest bands and produced a distinctive sound. We sit down and discuss things with him, we’re given all the freedom we need. If you came and saw us on stage then you’d see we can do almost everything from heavy metal to pop.
“We’re all good musicians you know, we’re not like some of these horrible punk bands. We don’t need to go on stage with safety pins through our ears or strange clothes. Some of them don't kow one end of the guitar from the other. It must be really difficult when you get them into a studio to record them. There’s no substitute for hard work and we’ve had plenty of that.
“Punk bands wearing safety pins through their ears?” Where have Racey been? Nobody’s dressed like that for at least 18 month – maybe they’ve been slow to catch up in Weston. But enough of this sideswipe, let Richard continue his Mickie Most appreciation speech.
“We wanted to sign to RAK because it was a caring company,” he continues. How many people would drive all the way from London to Weston to see a new band. Mickie has a small company but that means he’s deeply concerned with all the artists. He takes an acive part in all their interests, while allowing them to express themselves. He’s a marvelous mate.”
Cue for violins and rears – Now could we please move on to something else? Let’s talk about Racey’s travels through Europe. The band have particularly fond memories of Copenhagen.
Country boys at heart, they thought a sign saying ‘Copenhagen’s gayest night club’ meant the place had a happy atmosphere.
“They seemed to have some very attractive girls there,” continues Richard. “But soon we realized they were all men dressed up as women. Some even started to come over and fondle us. We thought we’d better leave and for security we held hands.
Not only that, but the band later went into another bar where there was a lady in a min I skirt. When she bent over she revealed that she was wearing NO KNICKERS. When the band have been on stage scantily clad members of the audience have also been known to clamber on stage and unzip their flies.
Racey have many more saucy stories but refuse to reveal them, so the subject is changed. “We’d like to play America but I don’t think they’re quite ready for our music, continues Richard.
At the moment we do sound very English, America seems to be in a smooth west coast rut. They need somebody to shake them up a little more.
“We’re at a point where we’re still developing musically. People shouldn’t write us off as just a kids band. When we go out on the road we’re going to get more than schoolgirls going to see us.
“I think we proved how versatile we were when we did that dance routine for ‘Top Of The Pops’. We want to do silly things like that to take the audience by surprise.
“It’s about time Weston Super Mare was known for something more than having a holiday camp.”

Donated by Jason Humphreys