Mabel may look and even sound pretty funny to some in this day and age, but back in the 70s they were very relevant in the European market. Mabel took elements of Sweet, Bay City Rollers and Scandinavian pop and became absolutely huge in their native Denmark (even representing Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest with 'Boom Boom' in 1978) and also in Spain.

It was after moving to Spain that the group changed musical direction, going for a harder sound and eventually changing the band name to Studs (releasing a reasonably rare album in 1981 that, if you listen to it now, musically formed part of the template that Tramp used when teaming up with Vito Bratta to put White Lion together). Before moving to New York Tramp, on the advice of David Lee Roth who he had met on a VH trek to Spain, changed the band name again to Lion.

Mike used to get a bit of stick in the 80s when mention of Mabel was made, especially thanks to the photo of him that appeared in the very first issue of 'Kerrang!', but he always took it in good spirit. The photos and info on Mabel had been in the public domain for years, so it was hardly going to embarrass Mike when 'Metal Sludge' decided to post these photos a few years ago now.