Kursaal Flyers

Little Does She Know: Complete Recordings

RPM/CHERRY RED Likeable pub-country combo who took the words “spin dryer” into the charts.

Timing was both kind and cruel to Southend’s Kursaal Flyers. Given an industry leg-up when Thames Delta mates Dr. Feelgood got it right, they struggled to convey a clear identity in the pub-rock boom before punk bullied the merely good-humoured aside.

Their music a strange blend of country influences, comic instincts and bluesy ballast, the band made two 1975 albums for Jonathan King – Chocs Away and The Great Artiste – which, while sketchy, reveal wit and ambition in the wry Tennessee and the 10cc-ish Speedway.

Mike Batt was brought in to produce 1976’s The Golden Mile, any discussion of which is dominated by Little Does She Know, the giant-chorused onehit wonder that should have been bigger. Not that it could have been bigger sonically, Batt having activated the band’s request to throw the kitchen sink (and an army rifleman firing blanks) at it. Five Live Kursaals (‘77) captures their raw, in-themoment appeal at the Marquee. By 1988’s A Former Tour De Force Is Forced To Tour, they’re indulging their Americana tastes fully yet are still unable to resist passion-killing quips.

Now all gussied up with a charmingly nostalgic booklet and a smattering of off-cuts, the Kursaals’ curious career evokes a warm glow of affection. ■■■■■■■■■■