Swinging youngsters Curiosity Killed The Cat look set for the Big Time. Certainly their record company thinks so. Don Perretta investigates.

By the time you read this a certain single called 'Misfit' will probably either be on its way into the Top 30 or have missed the boat completely. The success or failure of this single will obviously be crucially important to Curiosity Killed The Cat, whose first release it is, but it also throws up interesting insights into the way a major record company (in this case Phonogram) works.

Four good looking young boys from South West London who play a very easy, relaxed and contagious form of dance music, bred through years spent gyrating in discos, young men steeped in the ethos of getting people's feet moving, Ben (voice), Mig (drums), Nick (guitar) and Julian (bass), average age 20½, all graduates of the London club scene, kept bumping into each other, eventually got together and by mid-1984 had played their first gig together. It was at Foobert's, a then trendy night club off Carnaby Street, four numbers in the presence of the likes of Paul Young and Kid Creole. 'We were a mess', they say. Six months later, for the first time as Curiosity Killed The Cat, they played the Embassy on an night when some journalists from the style press happened to be in the audience. They went down extremely well and got an inordinate amount of coverage very early on. From that point on, Curiosity were a hot property.

A year later they had signed to Phonogram, for presumably a not inconsiderable sum of money, and almost immediately they felt stung by the big industry machine. Ben (hat firmly on his head at all times) and Mig pour it all out to me in hushed tones. They have to keep quiet because their A&R man is eating at the next table.

'I suppose we should have known anyway, but we signed to Phonogram because they assured us that they would not promote us as a pretty boy band, but as soon as our names were on the dotted line it was as if we were completely trapped. So we've had to fight for everything along the way. To their credit, we've eventually got almost everything we wanted. We didn't want to have a picture of us on the sleeve of 'Misfit', but there is, although they seem to have let us down without one on the 12".

That Phonogram have confidence in Curiosity to make the Big Time is very obvious as they have spent a lot of time, money and energy on getting everything right for the launch of the first single. Tape copies have been available to the press for ages in an effort to make sure that only journalists who like the song get to talk to the boys. The boys have been seen in all the right places and been associated with all the right names. Basically, they've marshalled their resources in the way that only a major label can.

Mig: 'In a way, we're the sort of band who might be better off on an indie label because we have a very strong view on how we should sound, and we're not happy with anything less than what we imagine we should be.'

That sort of collision happened early on when the label foisted Roy Hay of Culture Club onto them as producer. An interesting choice.

Mig: 'He was a nice guy and we did a demo with him to keep the label happy. Phonogram loved it, we hated it. Roy has completely different views to us and we want to sound a lot tougher than he could make us. But they still wanted to book us into a studio with him, so we had to go behind A&R's backs, to the MD, to get the producer we wanted.'

And the man they wanted (and eventually got) was Stewart Levine, whose track record includes twelve Crusaders albums, Aretha Franklin and the recent Simply Red album. In between times they had also worked with Sly and Robbie. An impressive array of names.

Ben: 'Sly and Robbie were great but still not quite what we were looking for. Everything was just too perfect with them.'

Although Phonogram have given on certain things, they still get most things their own way. The ultimate piece of hype happened when Andy Warhol was in town, and the boys were duly ushered in to meet him. To Curiosity it was a total surprise, all of a sudden they were meeting the outrageously famous Mr Warhol, cameras were clicking and the pictures were widely used in the journals of this sceptred isle. Quite a coup, but I don't mind betting it was a totally manufactured incident. Of course, Mr Warhol was totally enamoured of them, and 'won't you let me direct your video' was the next step.

You have to hand it to Phonogram, they've done everything they can to make sure 'Misfit' has a good shot at the charts. Of course, they're no mugs, as they have also guided Dire Straits, Tears For Fears and Big Country to mega-album status. So Curiosity could be in worse hands.

Mig: 'We still sometimes get worried though. About a year ago it was rumoured that we were a hand-picked model agency band, which is very disconcerting as that's the kind of image that can have you brushed off completely, without your music being given a chance.'

Curiosity Killed The Cat are very much into their music, a factor which has helped them no end in dealing with the workings of the machine. Just now they're too wrapped up in their recording to be swept away by the trappings of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. And they're still in love with the idea of actually having committed a first single to plastic, for all the world to hear.

Ben: 'I was in Tower Records the other day and I heard 'Misfit' being played, and although I've heard it a million times, I tried to ignore it but it was really appealing to me.'

I tell him that I like the single too, except for the middle eight, which is a dreary cliche. He looks at me as if mortally wounded and gets all defensive. 'Well we had to do it quickly in the studio...'

'Well I don't like it much either but I didn't want to say at the time 'cos you'd have got upset' adds Mig. Embarrassed silence.

You see, they're such nice boys. At the moment they're having a great time doing whey they love to do, that is play music. Hopefully they'll be left alone to do just that.