Malcolm Allured was one of the founding members of Showaddywaddy, being in the band since its inception in 1973. Nicknamed "The Duke", he was also the oldest member of the band, being born in August 1945.
Malcolm had long been interested in music and bands and played the drums in his first band, "Colorados", aged 18 in 1963. In 1964, he played in the band "The Golden Hammers" with Bill Gask, who would of course be in the Showaddywaddy line up with him later, and in 1966 he was in band called "Mozzeltoff" with Ray Martinez, who was to be Showaddywaddy's lead guitarist between 1985 and 1995. During 1972, a 6-piece band was formed called "Danjo", and as well as featuring Bill Gask, joining the line up were Rod Deas and Russ Field.
In 1973, the band became a 4 piece and were re-named "The Golden Hammers" (again), and whilst having a regular slot playing covers at the Fosse Way pub in Leicester, they merged with "Choise", a band playing mainly original material, and "Showaddywaddy" was born.
As Showaddywaddy were formed from two bands, there were two drummers as a consequence - the presence of two drum kits on stage and having Malc and Romeo sometimes playing at the same time gave Showaddywaddy an almighty stage presence.
Romeo played most songs during the band's live gigs, but this left Malcolm to contribute to the band's stage presence in other ways by taking part in the dance routines, introducing songs, and generally getting the crowd going, although Malcolm was indeed behind the kit for some songs - Malcolm himself acknowledges that Romeo was the "better drummer".
It is interesting to note that Malc played drums on Dancin' Party as all the TV promos showed Romeo playing. It just goes to show that you can't always see which band members played on which tracks just by seeing the band on the telly.
Malc can also be heard providing vocals during the studio recordings of King Of The Jive and at the beginning of A Night At Daddy Gee's as well as Lookin' Back.
During 1981, Malc temporarily worked in another band called Burglar's Dog - a side project from Showaddywaddy - alongside Al James, Ray Martinez and Rod Greaves, and whom released a single in Germany, a Trevor Oakes track, I Don't Like Rock 'n' Roll No More.
In 1984 after 11 years in the band, Malc decided to call it a day and was the first original member to leave. He wanted to spend more time at a pub he owned, and at that time, relationships in the band were strained and it seemed he'd just had enough. He later said, "I didn't plan my last gig, I just decided in the car on the way home".
He had missed some gigs during 1984 due to a knee injury, but his final gig came in Wales. Details of his final gig are not known for sure - there are a few gigs in Wales in 1984 detailed in the site's Gigography & Timeline.
The band were renamed "The Teddys" and continued to perform at Malc's clubs, firstly Jimmy Dean's (later The Stock Yard) in Osgathorpe, then from 1999, MFN in Nottinghamshire, a club that he still owns today.
"The Teddys" continued to feature Bill Gask and also Ray Martinez for a time (1995-2000). Russ Field played a guest slot with The Teddys in Berwick in November 2001. After some inactivity, The Teddys played the odd gig during 2009/10 but without Bill or Ray, and the band have gigged sporadically ever since.
Running pubs has been a side-line of Malcolm's for many years, and he was running pubs during his time with Showaddywaddy, one of these being The Traveller's Rest in Griffydam, near Leicester, and The Crazy Horse in Nuneaton.
Despite the problems of recent years, Malcolm is proud of his time with Showaddywaddy and says that the low point of his career was the day he left the band.