What's in a Name?

I am often asked how I got the nickname of "Bunty". Some people think it is short for Billy Bunter, the fictional fat pupil of Greyfriars School featured in the books by Frank Richards. Whilst I can understand this train of thought, this is not the answer.

Others wonder if it's anything to do with the girls comic "Bunty"

No my friends, it is neither.

Bunty for Girls (12946 bytes)

It all goes back to the first Roger Chapman tour in February '79. As with most tours there were in-jokes and catchphrases etc, and it was decided amongst the crew to adopt nicknames in the style of characters from the Biggles books by W. E. Johns. And so it was that the crew featured the likes of Bob "WingCo" Pridden, Keith "Ginger" Smith, Alec "Algy" Nisic, Tony "Snorker" Slee and yours truly, Steve "Bunty" King

This was all reinforced by oft shouted gung-ho phrases such as "bandits at 3 o'clock", "watch out for the Hun - coming out of the sun", "take no prisoners", "stand by your beds" and "as you were"!

The tour was to promote the release of Roger Chapman's first album as a solo artist "Chappo". As you can see, Chappo is wearing a bright red boiler suit on the sleeve and all the crew were issued with a tour uniform of a similar design and hue! The sight of about 15 people milling about in various degrees of consciousness in hotel lobbies at some unearthly time of the day must have been an incongruous sight for your average hotel guest!

So now you know how I became "Bunty". The name has stood me in good stead over the years and has helped people remember me. After all, there are thousands of "Steves" knocking about but a great big bloke called "Bunty" is quite a rarity!