“Paul was an electronics geek and I wanted to be an archaeologist.

“We were accidental pop stars,” decides McCluskey. “Every time we stood in the Top Of The Pops studio with Cliff Richard and Elton John,” says Humphreys, “just before the camera panned over to us we’d look at each other like, ‘How the **** did this happen?' ” “Yet we released these records that we’d written in Paul’s mum’s house and, unbelievably, we sold millions!” “We were too serious about the music to care about the image,” says McCluskey. They wore plain shirts and black ties, although they were amused when their audience dressed in the same anonymous style. Although big fans of David Bowie and Roxy Music, they didn’t want to construct a striking identity. Their plan was simply to create successful music, which is why they did not appear on their album sleeves.