One of the first bands I saw at Cambridge this year was Short & Curlies, better known as Phil Pope(Short) and Rory McGrath(Curly). It was light and bright and seemed a funny time to catch a comedy band like this, but it wasn't long before you forgot about the hour and just concentrated on the music.

The important thing about comedy music is that the music should be good. This is more important than whether a song's funny or not. As it was there was no need to worry on either count.

The band included the likes of Bobby Valentino(fiddle/mandolin), who Karl recognised and pointed out, and John Trotter(drums) and delivered a great, if short set.

Afterwards, I managed to drop backstage and grab a chat with Rory McGrath

#R=Rory McGrath #N=Neil King

#N You've become known for the comedy stuff. I remember seeing you in Brighton a few years back with a set similar to this. How often do you get out with the band?

#R Brighton was about four years ago and that was about it before this. We started off as a country band, ironically because I wanted to get away from comedy. I've always played the guitar, I know about three chords, which is why I chose country. I'd noticed that if you tell a joke people will laugh and the jokes finished, write a song like "American Pie", people will want to hear it all the time.

#N You never hear the phrase, "Honey come quickly they're telling our joke."

#R Exactly. We done this charity show for Amnesty at the London Palladium. Alan Clark of the Hollies came on and just to the piano sang, "He Ain't Heavy". The whole Palladium went quiet for the song and when he finished he got a standing ovation. The comedians had been working their arses off to get a laugh and he got the loudest cheer.

It didn't actually work out like that. I thought that the only way I could get into it was by playing comedy songs first. Then I became stuck with a comedy country and western band and haven't got anywhere near where I wanted to be.

#N Do you ever want to take this to the stage where you're in the studio laying down an album?

#R Yes, sure. The live stuff is great, I love the immediacy of it. What is it eight o'clock now and we're having a beer, we know how it went. I'd like to do it, but so that we can just turn up and start laying things down without too much business hassle and time pressure.

#N You started doing songs with the "Who Dares Wins" team. Is that where the idea came from or was it before that?

#R I've played guitar since I was seventeen, pretty much the same chords and I wanted to make use of them. My secret is Leonard Cohen's my hero, so imagine someone known for comedy and ladishness and sports liking Leonard Cohen. I was thinking, how can I get these two things to join? I wanted to do some of the heavier stuff.

#N First we take Manhattan then we take the Palladium?

#R Great song title. Love to do that. Leonard Cohen can do that really dark stuff and have people sat around in rapture. The thing about doing comedy music is it's finite. If you're in a band and you get a laugh then you have to keep to the same chard until the laugh dies down. That's my background, but the band are thinking, "Why the hell's he just stopped, we're onto the chorus?"

#N Did the band come around by accident?

#R Phil Pope, whose the musical genius of the group, has worked a lot in studios, he writes and composes, does a lot of TV work.

#N Wrote The Chicken Song.

#R Something he doesn't like to talk about. He knows a lot of good musicians, some of which will hack working with a musician that hasn't got as much experience.

#N You've managed to get a great band together.

#R John Trotter, the Geordie drummer said, "The band sounds great. All we need to do is turn Rory's amp off." Sometimes when I'm playing with them I think it's such a fantastic sound that's behind me.

continued