Decades after his band burst onto the scene with mega hit Sugar Baby Love, The Rubettes’ Alan Williams is back with a Christmas single and stories from the past
Hiding in toilets to escape adoring French women, advising Paul McCartney on airstrips, selling more than 30 million records worldwide – as lives go, Alan Williams’ has been quite exceptional.
But the lead singer and guitarist of internationally renowned glam group The Rubettes hasn’t forgotten his early years, several of which were spent in Dagenham.
Raised in Hackney, the young Alan moved further east when he bought his first home not far from Ford’s factory.
And it was there in 1973 that he – along with Dagenham-dwelling drummer John Richardson and Dagenham-reared bassist Mick Clarke – formed their band around the hit single Sugar Baby Love.
“All of a sudden we were on Top of the Pops, we were number one,” Alan said. “And people were saying, ‘What, he lives there?’ They thought I’d live in a mansion.
“But it was fantastic. We were playing everywhere – including The Roundhouse – and we’d do all-nighters. We had to starve a bit before we got success.”
When the success arrived, Alan would move away – but not before taking care of his family.
“I bought my parents a home in Dagenham and they lived there for 30 years,” he said. “And I gave my house to my sister, who is still there now.”
But fame also took Alan across the globe and introduced him to a notorious pop phenomenon: hysterically devoted fans.
“The management tried to downplay that we were all married,” Alan said. “But it wouldn’t have mattered to the girls. I’ve been smuggled out of gigs and physically hurt by female fans.
“One time in Paris we all had to hide in the public toilets while the girls were laying siege. The police had to rescue us using riot gear.”
It was in France the band found its greatest success, and those early tours in Europe gave birth to a mutual and longlasting love.
“The French adopted us,” Alan said. “I won’t be stopped in the street in England these days, but in France it’s guaranteed – we’re still current over there.
“I love France – it has a wonderful ambience. With the success, I bought a chateau in Normandy. It was a bit ridiculous – 35 bedrooms and 126 acres. In the end I gave it up as impractical. My wife would get up in the morning to make me a cup of tea and by the time she got back upstairs it was cold.”
Though the band is known mostly for what Alan calls “the glam thing” – and which he says was manufactured by producers – they took a dramatic change in direction in 1976 when they released Under One Roof, a song about the experiences of a gay man.
“The radio refused to play it,” Alan said. “We were so disappointed. It was very taboo then, but it was annoying for us because they played Rod Stewart’s The Killing of Georgie, which is quite similar.”
It was also around this time that Alan and the band got to know Paul McCartney while touring with Wings. Alan, who is a pilot, remembers being consulted by the Beatle about a grand project.
“He wanted a runway on his Scottish island,” he said. “We talked about it but I’m not sure if it went ahead. Paul was a funny guy – I remember him telling me he’d been to France and an interviewer asked him, ‘Are you Paul McCartney?’ and the next question was, ‘Do you know The Rubettes?’”
Now, 40 years later, the band has released a festive single, Plastic Christmas, to make up for what Alan considers his biggest regret.
“Slade and Mud did them at the time and they have been getting played ever since,” he said.
But the song, which uses the music from Plastic Bertrand’s 1977 single Ça plane pour moi, won’t be accompanying Alan’s Christmas.
“I’m spending Christmas in Dagenham with my sister,” he said. “But I won’t be listening to The Rubettes. Why would you want to listen to yourself?”
The Rubettes featuring Alan Williams play Dartford on November 22 and the Broadway Theatre in Barking in November 2016. Visit therubettesfeaturingalanwilliams.com for more information
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