It's been almost 25 years since Midlands rock'n'rollers Showaddywaddy were topping the charts.
With their crepe-soled shoes and drape coats the retro rockers were the Steps of their time - the band that made party records that the kids loved and their mums and dads secretly enjoyed too.

Although it's been 17 years since the band has dented the charts, you might be forgiven for thinking that they've gone their separate ways, opened antique shops or second-hand record stalls at the local market.
But, in fact, Leicestershire's famous rocking fathers, who headline tomorrow night's Calennig celebrations at Cardiff Civic Centre, have never stopped working as frontman Dave Bartram explained.
"We've never really stopped. We're still as busy as ever."

These days it's corporate conventions, theatre tours, university and college bashes that give them their main audiences.
"The seventies were crazy. It was a very exciting time, things were moving so fast there was always something happening. Photo sessions, TV shows. It was non-stop: busy busy busy."

More than 50 Top of the Pops appearances, their own BBC TV special in the mid 80s, a Royal Variety Performance where the Queen Mother put in a special request to meet the band afterwards and making history as the first western band to be screened live in Cuba were just some of their achievements during Showaddywaddy's pop reign.

But it was their first TV appearance on the Seventies TV talent show 'New Faces' (responsible for launching the TV careers of Lenny Henry and Victoria Wood) that catapulted the band into the public eye. Although Dave reckoned that they were on their way to making it anyway:
"New Faces got us noticed by a larger audience, but we had already built up a massive following by the time we appeared on the show," explained Dave, who now aged 47, lives with his beautician wife and 15-year-old daughter in Northampton.
"But there were already record companies knocking on our door."

Signed to the Bell/Arista label, which was also home to the Bay City Rollers, David Cassidy and the Glitter Band, their first single 'Hey Rock And Roll' went to number two in the charts in 1974.
The band, with its original eight members, went on to clock up 12 hit albums (including three platinum ones) and 23 top 40 singles including 'Hey Rock & Roll', 'Three Steps to Heaven', 'Heartbeat', 'When', 'I Wonder Why' and their only number one 'Under the Moon of Love'.
"After we released our first single,we went on tour with David Cassidy," recalled Dave.
"We played White City the night that one of the fans was crushed to death. A week after that tour, David Cassidy's record dropped down the charts and ours shot to number three.
"One of the highlights of that time was the night we played a hometown show in Leicester the week before Christmas. And just before we were due to go on stage we heard that our album had knocked Grease from the number one spot."
"We were making hits up until 1983 - after that we became unfashionable. Our teeny bop fans had grown up and turned their attentions to other things."
"During that time we took time to sort out our personnel. There were certain people who weren't pulling their weight." explained Dave.

The band's six-man longtime line-up - drummer Romeo Challenger, guitarist Trevor Oakes, bass players Rod Deas and Al James - are all part of the original band. Guitarist Danny Willson was a later recruit.

"We kept on going because we were still a very good live band and we still had a lot to offer," said Dave, who now manages Showaddywaddy along with Suzi Quatro and some new bands.

Their personnel sort-out also included a costly court injunction four years ago, when the band was forced to take action against one of the former members, Malcolm, who tried trading on the Showaddywaddy name.
"As we had never split up it wasn't difficult for us to get an injunction against him. But it caused a lot of acrimony and we had to spend a lot of money to get it sorted," explained Dave.

And although time moves on, Showaddywaddy's show remains true to their rock 'n' roll roots. They still wear the brightly-coloured drape coats, which used to be specially-made by a local tailor. They now get them from a company in Nottingham.

"It never seems to amaze me, the amount of respect our band has from people. My daughter tells me I'm the coolest dad in her school, which is quite flattering."

Having just completed a pre-Christmas seventies nostalgia tour with Suzi Quatro, The Rubettes, Mud and Alvin Stardust, the band are getting ready to see in the New Year in the capital and 2001 looks like bringing a new Showaddywaddy album.

"I don't have any sentimentality about New Year's Eve, I prefer Christmas," said Dave.
"But it will be fun playing in Cardiff. We'll be on stage at 11.30pm, so we'll be playing in the New Year with our own version of Auld Lang Syne."