Obituary: Mud frontman Les Gray died aged 57 on February 21 after a long battle against throat cancer. Nicky Chinn, who co-wrote hits for Mud and others, pays tribute.(Forum)

The first time Mike [Chapman, his songwriting partner] and I met Les and the band was when we went to see them at a club in Nottingham and my immediate impression of Les was as an entertainer almost of the old school. He look that side of what he did very seriously and he loved playing to an audience. I always remember him saying 'I hit it to them and they hit it back to me'. That was what Mud were all about. They weren't the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll type of band that Sweet were. They were ordinary guys and Les typified that.

It turned out to be a different kind of music with Mud compared to Sweet. We were beginning to rock it up with Sweet and they turned out to be a much more musically aggressive kind of band. Sweet were never going to sing Tiger Feet, while Mud saw themselves as an entertainment band. They never took themselves too seriously, which people liked.

Mud were part of the glam rock movement, although were they glam rock? I know Rob Davis had his earring and flared trousers, but they had Teddy Boy jackets and really preempted Showaddywaddy. But in that period they became one of the most significant acts.

At the beginning, we didn't know what direction to go in with Mud, which you can see with the first two singles, Crazy and Hypnosis, which were these tango beat type records and, had we continued in that direction, Mud wouldn't have been successful. Then we came up with Dynamite--that set the scene for Mud, made the Top Five and we ...