Inside Gossip Catch Up With Flock Of Seagulls Legend Frank Maudsley and Cook Da Books Legend Owen Moran

We caught up with rock legends Frank Maudsley and Owen Moran at Palm Sugar in Liverpool, took some pictures and interviewed the guys on their success and on their future.

Hi Frank, hows it going?

Okay, it’s going good, at the moment i am semi-retired as i made all my money in the 80′s, i am working on alot of charities, i can tell you one thing though i still love being in the limelight. I am privalleged to still be getting interviewed and to have photographers present for it also. Owen escaped me and went to Cuba with his wife and saw A Flock Of Seagulls on T.V which im still happy with. As life gets better you encounter bigger problems and issues so you have to stay focused and make the days ahead better. For me waking up and being alive is a result.

Where did the bands name come from?

The name came from a book written by a guy called Richard Back, it was called Seagulls That Savaged, they fly higher and higher and get on with life. The name also comes from a song by The Stranglers, a song on the White Album i think, A toiler on the sea, in the middle of the song they are lost adrift at sea and one shouts A Flock Of Seagulls, which means they have found dry land and they are home again. It was a mutual decision by all the band members, you had bands with names like Echo And The Bunnymen, so we wanted something adnormal, not something like a Welsh Railway, so A Flock Of Seagulls just fitted in and we took it.

How would you expect to make sales in todays climate of illegal downloads and file sharing?

I really don’t expect to make any sales, i make music just for the passion, but that is todays market of promotion, it’s just like when the Chineese lady comes into our local to sell DVD’s, it’s good promotion for the film. Today i would only have to sell say 500 singles to get in a chart and 10,000 for another Chart, where as back in the 80′s we would have had to sell over a million, so it would be alot easier today. we have just got to move along with technology, like a photographer for instance moving from Kodak to Cannon and digital, i always think forward and progress with the times.

Do you think you have to be involved in the indie/rock scene in Liverpool to break out of the city?

No not really, you have a women with big bushy eye brows who goes on a talent show called Susan Boyle, could it get any worse? If it works and the public like it then it will break out, if you win you win. I play classical piano, i make it up as i go along, the music industry should be the same.

How did your rise to fame happen?

At first, i wanted to be a hairdresser, i would would walk round town until i found a job, i even cut people’s hair off the street’s, parents and kids for £3 a cut and i made quite a lot of money from that. I would also take flairs of the kids and turn them into drainpipes and charge them £3 also, so i was making quite a lot of money, so i bought loads of good equipment. Mike (Score) also had a salon, he sold that and the band all went to London together and havn’t looked back.

What are you doing at present?

Well myself and Owen has just finished a re-vamp on the Z car theme for Everton Football Club, we have made it more rock and roll, we made it better and they accepted it. We want to re-vamp as many teams as we can. Mike is actually doing a European tour under Flock Of Seagulls without getting permission from us, so if you see a Flock Of Seagulls on a poster it will not be the real deal, it will be mike and session players, not the real experience is it. We have just done the Rhys Jones Foundation and the Echo arena as a one off, although i would like the band to re-form for the sake of being and the future, not for money. I am ultralistic, i would do it for the passion and the love of making music, not the royalties.

7. Owen, is there something you would like to add?

I go all shy in interviews, unlike Frank who loves them and rambles on. Erm…..Me and Frank are called Franco and we have been writting together, i have known Frank for 30 years he is a fantastic artist in all senses, as a musician, art, at everything he is just a pleasure to work with. Digsy from Cook Da Book’s is now in a band called the Somes, did you know that Oasis writ the song Digsy’s Dinner about him and his Lazange. A Reunion tour? over mine and digsy’s dead body’s.

Here are two funny stories for you, one day Bob Paisley (Old Liverpool Manager) came to our house as he wanted to sign my brother, so he was speaking to my dad. I was sitting there watching tele and i see this big foot come across and get in my way, so i say to him move you foot, he does, then he puts it back so i say FUCKING move you foot, he turns around and goes SON and gives me a 50p note which was alot of money back then, so i say to him ok you can keep it there.

The other one is, i get nicked for drink driving a while back, frank came to get me in the morning, i wouldn’t give a blood sample, so i gave a urine sample. In the morning whilst signing my papers, the police fella who was signing me was called into the backroom so i was left alone, i see the urine sample and i take it sign my papers and get off. Later the same day, the same fella knock as the door and tell me i was caught on CCTV, i said so what wrong, he says Owen Moran i am arresting you for Taking The Piss!!!.

Anything you both want to add?

Owen: Well we took our new Z theme to Mark Conor who made the orginal, which Frank helped in pre-production, he liked it, so that should be released officially in the next four weeks.

We are Evertonians so it is important to us, we want the team to come out inspired, kind of like Rocky. So we made is 21′st century with out losing the original product, we done it through labour of love and not for the money.

Frank: We want to make songs for anyone expect Liverpool, we can’t change their, but i bet you Gerry could.

We go out and try new things, change with the times and try to make history right.

Any Gossip for us?

Well did you know Neil Fitzmaurice wrote Phoenix Nights and Peter Kay stole it? Neil never got enough credits for that.

I used to go on a show called Let’s Be Frank, i made a joke about Shannon Mathews, the kid who went missing, saying she is very good at hide and seek, this was after she was found and i stated it was a relief for her to be found, i was booted off the show. About two weeks later Graham Norton uses the same joke on his show, did he get booted? No..looks like people are robbing our gags.

It was a pleasure to meet you guys.

(Owen climbs from behind the bar).

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