Tich Critchlow - So what do you do now Tich?

I live by the sea in Dorset and have my lighting designs for chandeliers, wall and table lamps made by Best & Lloyd of Chelsea Design Centre. They supplied some to the St. Pancras Hotel, London which was a thrill to see. Right now I'm gearing up to perform live again with the band using the amazing Yamaha DTX900 e-kit. Sounds tasty!

You must have met some famous people while in LIAB. Who impressed you the most?

We met loads of superstars in the 80’s mainly because we made the first record in Los Angeles and you’re more likely to bump into a star there than you are on Fargate in Sheffield! It was in England though, in Sarm Recording Studios while we were taking a break in the cafe, that I recognised a vaguely familiar fellow pass through on his way to the loos and before closing the door he gave me a wink and the two thumbs up gesture. On his way back he stopped and sat down and joined us for dinner. It was Paul McCartney. We must have spent an hour or more chatting about music as you would with someone you’d meet in a pub. He was so excited for us and complementary about Richard’s voice. Some weeks after that Richard or ‘Darby Pup’ as Paul called him went to McCartney’s place to record backing vocals.

Nice wheels Tich... Bet that doesn’t dodge the Congestion Charge!

Much to the amusement of Marcus and Richard, I recently bought a Lamborghini Urraco from the mid-70’s and there were only 791 built. Marcus had a disaster with his classic cars in the early 90’s. They cost him a fortune in towing fees off the M4! This beauty is my dream but, true to form, it’s already spent more time in the garage than time spent on the road but I think everything is sorted now. Fingers crossed.

Apart from the sleep walking naked around a hotel in Boston incident, can you tell us about any other embarrassing goings on while you were in The Box?

Yes, there’s one particularly unusual incident that comes to mind. We were doing an Italian Film Awards TV special one Saturday night in Riva Del Garda in front of a vast, live audience as well as a live transmission to the Italian nation. Rupert Everett (pictured with Marcus and Tich, above right) who had a record deal with our label Chrysalis at the time, was there to receive an award in his capacity as an actor and also perform his latest release. Chrysalis were too tight to provide him with a backing band so he asked us if we’d back him. Why not, we thought and in return Rupert offered to play congas on our set.

At the end of the Living In A Box set, it came time to present the award. The show’s host announced Rupert as the winner and asked him to come up and collect the award. The audience cheered and the spotlight wandered around the auditorium in search of the young thespian. To all our amazement, particularly mine, the burning spot came to rest... on me! They’d obviously mistakenly been told that Rupert was playing the drums, instead of percussion. I couldn’t argue the point as it was all happening on live t.v. and I had no alternative really but to get up and play the role of Rupert and accept the award myself. The real ‘Rupie’ was left ignored behind his congas. You can imagine how brief my acceptance speech was and I’ve got to say, that was the first and last award I ever received for acting!