'It was soul destroying, you could hear people ordering at the bar!'

WHEN THEY saw a bed in Abbey Road's studio three, the three Shulman brothers couldn't resist using it as a trampoline. “We were trying to see who could jump higher,” admits singer Derek, then known as Simon Dupree of Simon Dupree & The Big Sound.

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HIGH FLYERS: Simon Dupree & The Big Sound promoting 'Kites' back in 1967

“The bedsheets were all over the place.”

Then the Lennons turned up. “John said, ‘What bull**** is this?’, Yoko told us to get off in more colourful terms. It was embarrassing.

“I blamed my older brother Phil for encouraging me. The Beatles never knew we spent more time on their instruments than their bed.”

When they went Top Ten in 1967 with psychedelic single Kites, their manager booked them a three-hour recording session to create a followup.

“We put together a crazy thing called We Are The Moles which we released as The Moles,” says Derek, 78, with a smile. “George Martin produced it.”

They left a tape in a London luggage locker and sent the key to Melody Maker saying Parlophone would release it. “By the time it reached the Top 50 everyone was talking about it. There were rumours it was the Beatles with Ringo singing. Then Syd Barrett [of Pink Floyd] decided it was getting out of hand and blurted out that it was us. He wasn't a very pleasant person.”

Parlophone had signed the five-piece blues and soul band the year before, launching a career that would encompass Elton John, prog rock and the Kray twins.

“Elton, or Reg as we knew him, was fantastic,” says Derek, whose memoir is published on Friday.

“He was our keyboardist on a 1967 tour and was and is a great friend. He was very instrumental in our development, encouraging us to listen to Miles Davis, Spirit, and Frank Zappa" - all of whom were influential for their next band.

“Dudley Moore played on one of our tracks. So many people became friends. It was fantastic.

“Abbey Road felt surreal. You'd see Cliff Richard and Pink Floyd drinking tea and eating chips in the canteen - I felt like the Forrest Gump of the music business.”