Rock and roller Alan Clayson, lead singer with The Argonauts, began his career in music because he thought being in the band would attract the girls.

Passions were aroused in Alan but it was a lifelong love of music which stemmed from a school band called Ace And The Crescents.

“We were at Aldershot School but our principal motivation for starting the group was because we thought it would give us greater licence to talk to girls,’’ said Alan.

One of his first favourite pop bands was the Dave Clark Five, but then musical lightning was to strike when he heard Freak Out! by Mother’s of Invention. “This was a pivotal event that informed not so much my artistic direction as an attitude about presentation,’’ he said. Various bands followed including Billy and the Conquerors, Turnpike, Average Joe and The Men In The Street and finally Clayson and the Argonauts and fame beckoned. “We left the runway in 1976 when John Tobler wrote a flowing New Musical Express report on our set,” said Alan.

But even as they were hitting the right notes in the press, a few thunder rumblings could be heard in the distance. “The report was only a fortnight after we’d been hustled out of a palais in Reading at gunpoint. the promoter found our show so rubbish. that he felt entitled not to pay us. One of the Argonauts was jailed for 15 months.

“Two others quit, one of them was fated to co-produce the Hilda Baker and Arthur Ballard chart buster duet You’re The One That I Want, and the other was to be the father of a future Girls Aloud member.’’

While Alan is still gigging, The singer is also a writer having written biographies of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Keith Moon, The Rolling Stones and Jacques Brel.

Alan and The Argonauts will be rocking into The Beehive, 55 Prospect Hill, Old Town, Swindon tonight at 8.30pm, to perform a free gig. Formore details call 01793 523187 - Flicky Harrison