Sunday Supplement, 19th June 1966

Mary Payne explains about The Knack, The Knack's Knees and how she became an Honorary Member of the group

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 Stop! Before You Get Me Going Knack Piccadilly 7N 35322

The Knack joined the Knees Club at the Radio London Club Afternoon at London's Marquee Club on Saturday, April 9th 1966. The knees of band members Paul Curtis, gtr, (#185), Brian Morris, gtr, (#187), (Graham) Topper Clay, drms, (#184) and Mick Palmer, bs, (#186). (This Knack should not be confused with the American group of the same name who scored with My Sharona in 1978.)

The Knack were originally called the Londoners, and in 1964, were backing rocker Gene Vincent. Topper Clay began his musical career in a skiffle group at school. Brian Morris had been a member of Earl Preston and the Realms. The change of name occurred on the boys' return to London from a six-month residency at the famous Star Club in Hamburg. Presumably the name came from Dick Lester's 1965 'Swingin' London' film, The Knack... And How to Get It.

The sleeve notes for PYE/Piccadilly compilation Ripples Vol 1, and other sources, list the group members who recorded Stop/Younger Girl as Adrian and Paul Gurvitz, Louis Farrell and Tim Mycroft. It had long been a source of confusion as to whether there had actually been two groups called The Knack.

In January 2002, the two missing pieces of the Knack jigsaw puzzle were finally unearthed. First, the Radio London Webmasters received the following knee-mail:

I suppose I can unravel the mystery about The Knack, because I am Topper Clay. There was only one line-up as your article suggests. The line-up reported on the Pye compilation were the members of the later band The Gun, a band formed by Paul Gurvitz together with his brother Adrian. I suppose the record company in their wisdom decided to use this line-up because they enjoyed more success with record releases.

Coincidentally, Topper's message arrived just after the second piece of the puzzle had fallen into place, with the realisation that at some stage, the Curtis family had reverted to their real surname of Gurvitz. In fact, in a few bios, their name is listed as Curtis-Gurvitz, which is the one that will be used from now on in this feature, to try and avoid further confusion!

Whether or not it was intentional on the part of Pye to list the group line-up as they did, Adrian Curtis-Gurvitz, Louis Farrell and Tim Mycroft were not members of the Knack, but Paul Curtis-Gurvitz was.

In this photograph, Gearie Kenworthy (right) has already replaced Mick Palmer. Gearie (#273) also joined the KC at the Marquee on April 9th, but at that time was still a member of Kent outfit, the Limeys. From left: Paul, Brian, Topper and Gearie. (Sorry, Paul, but tartan-enhanced shirts never caught on before the Bay City Rollers.)

I was thrilled when the band gave me the white label copy of Stop/Younger Girl, pictured at the top of this feature. Younger Girl is a much slower version of the Critters' hit, penned by John Sebastian, a recording which, which coincidentally accompanied the Knack in the June 19th Fab, having shot up ten places from #24 to #14.

Even more exciting, as far as I was concerned, the Knack's manager, Sam Curtis-Gurvitz, asked me to run a fan club for the band. I never realised at the time that Sam and Paul Curtis-Gurvirtz were father and son. Adrian and Paul Curtis-Gurvitz were born in Gants Hill. Dad Sam, had been a tour manager for bands like the Kinks and Cliff and the Shadows, and both sons were influenced to start singing and playing music while very young. Adrian was playing professionally by the age of fifteen, backing artists like Billie Davies. A photo of Sam is on Paul's website.

My mother, highly suspicious of the proposed fan club project and the effect it would undoubtedly have on my schoolwork, escorted me to Sam's office on Hendon Broadway to discuss this unpaid job. The letter from Sam, (left ) is complete with my scribbled instructions as to which bus we should catch from Hendon station to his office. Although, much to Mum's relief, the fan club never came to fruition, the group made me an honorary member. So proud of this was I, that I used to sign my name 'M. Wingert, HMK' (Honorary Member of the Knack)'.

The Knees Club received the nice letter (above, right) from Paul Curtis-Gurvitz, postmarked 20th July 66, and signed with a pair of knobbly 'Knack Knees'. In the tradition of writing romantic (or just plain rude) acronyms like 'S.W.A.L.K.' (Sealed With A Loving Kiss) on the backs of envelopes, Paul has written K.N.A.C.K. on his, translating it below as 'Kisses Never Always Crumble Knees'.

We next heard from Paul on 22nd March 2002, via knee-mail:

Just for the record, my real name is Gurvitz. I was blown away by the Knack Page! I have not had a chance to take it all in yet, but I will go over it. Maybe I can add to your page, if there is anything you might want to add. It's been quite a while and a few things are a little blurry.
Love Paul, 2002

The Gurvitz brothers have been involved in numerous musical projects since the demise of The Knack and Gun. Both are now living on the West Coast of America, and are still heavily involved in the music business.

Paul sang on the original film soundtrack of Tommy. He co-wrote Find The Time, a hit in the Eighties for (another) Essex group Five Star. Others who have recorded Paul's songs include Jermaine Jackson and Imagination, and he issued an album in 2002, called No Gun-No Army.

Adrian's songs have also been covered by many artists, including Aaron Neville, REO Speedwagon and Kenny G, and have enhanced platinum-selling albums.

A terrific collection of photographs of The Londoners, The Knack and later band incarnations Gun and Baker-Gurvitz Army can be viewed on Paul Gurvitz's website, including some great shots of Gun wearing teeshirts depicting characters from the cult TV show, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in.

Topper Clay joined New York Public Library in 1967, followed by ex-Knack-colleague Brian Morris, in 1968.

Topper, says:

"I didn't know that anybody out there would still remember us. My daughter was impressed that someone on the web was interested in bands that I've been in. When I talk about the 60s and gigs I've done I'm afraid I come under the heading of 'boring old fart'!

Today NYPL are still together playing small gigs in the south around the Farnham area. It's now a six-piece line-up with emphasis on vocals as ever. We currently have two CDs out and are working on a third. The line-up includes the original NYPL singer John Kirby Woollard, and 1970 lead singer Peter Morrison."

More about NYPL and where to buy their CD Keep A Clear Head can be found here.

 

Photograph of Topper in 2000, by Tony Willey from the liner of Keep A Clear Head

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