"Just to put the record straight. He wanted The Humblebums to carry on doing folk. Rafferty wished to expand his musical horizons and encouraged Connolly to use his natural comedy approach to attract a larger audience spectrum as a solo player."

I knew Billy and Tam,(who like myself worked in the building trade), long before Gerry joined. they never "did folk", they did a little bluegrass interspersed with comedy, which gradually took over.

Gerry changed the group completely, I was in the audience on his introduction...he did a few of his own songs and I was blown away, became a lifelong fan, have every record he ever made, but he was from a different genre.

Most of the audience wanted the old Billy and Tam, the footstompin' the raucus laughter, the observational Glasgow comedy.

Tam was ditched and he told me later that he had gone back to chippying......the rest is history.