David Kubinec aka 'Kubie' has enjoyed a long career in the music business, having played extensively in Hamburg with "The Pieces of Mind" in the mid-sixties and with the psych-pop act "The World of Oz". He wrote their single 'The Muffin Man' – which was a hit in Holland, Germany, Spain, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand – but left during the recording of their album and rejoined "The Pieces Of Mind", who were hugely popular in North Germany, a territorial link that continued to offer Kubie an outlet later on. By 1973 'Kubie' was a singer songwriter in search of a deal. Timing was such that producer and manager ADRIAN MILLAR, then a recently departed partner in World Wide Artists (home to "Black Sabbath" amongst others), was looking for new projects to get involved with. Following an introduction made via girlfriends working at the very fashionable Mr. Freedom store in Kensington, Kubie was sent along by Clem Curtis from The Foundations to meet Millar. Despite turning up at Millar’s flat like a character from 'Budgie', with a guitar over the shoulder and no case, Kubie proceeded to stun Millar with the quality of his songs and sheer unique presence. This could be the one… There ensued a period of Millar, along with business partner Andrew Loog Oldham, trying to claim Kubie’s moment in the sun with a deal on MotownRecords Rare Earth label, with whom they had a production deal. When Motown confessed that actually they were having trouble breaking white acts, the moment passed back to Millar, now wondering if his own A&R assessment had been accurate. In 1969 David released a single with Herbie Green & the Torn Veil. Thinking that maybe repositioning Kubie inside a band situation could be the answer Millar recruited a readymade band called "CWT" (The Hundredweight), a heavy rock four piece hailing from a mansion in Kent, and recorded an albums worth of material with them by way of test. A recording test to see if they would fit behind Kubie. So The Rats were fomed. As it turned out Millar was able to license the resulting material to his friend Eckhart Rahn, then in the process of attempting to set up his own version of Chrysalis Records in Germany called Kuckuck). Meanwhile Millar was impressed enough by the drummer, bassist and guitarist to bring them back in to the studio to work up Kubie's songs in new sessions with Kubie, now in the role of band leader vocalist. Nigel Thomas stepped in, offering a UK release with huge support on his won newly created Goodear Record label Millar had to take the deal. 'Turtle Dove' was an easy choice for the lead off single, and as we all agree should have been a massive hit. That it wasn't, Millar puts down to partly the Goodear deal via Pye Records, who in reality offered only pressing and distribution but no proper promotion and also Goodear the label set up, being more about assets than artists and repertoire. Further disaster or bad luck befell Kubie when, as the album was I preparation for production, two of the band members fell out with Millar and were sacked. Another couple of players (Roddy MacKenzie aka 'Jeep Solid' & Jeff Allen) were hastily drafted in for a band photo, that which appears inside the LP gatefold, but never played on the record nor anywhere else as THE RATS. Indeed THE RATS even with the band members who did play on the record, never played live. Album dead, project dead, Kubie's moment gone. Millar still had belief in Kubie's songs, a belief he retains to this day. Back then all he could do was record another selection of them, with session players and orchestra, and pick up again with Eckhart Rahn. Consequently an LP by David Kubinec called "Day Of The Madman" followed a year after CWT and was released in Germany on Kuckuck. The sting in the end of the tale was that in looking for recruits Millar found MICHAEL CORBY, an extremely photogenic musician, and for thirty seconds in a potential line up with Kubie. However the marriage never happened. Millar needed to move on so took Corby into his next project which eventually delivered "The Babys"…but that's another story. In the late summer of 1969, Kubie formed a band with Partick Moraz and his friend, bass player and cellist Jean Ristori and 17yr old drummer Bryson Graham. David Kubinec named the band "Mainhorse Airline" (later known as David Kubinec's Mainhorse Airline) with the approval of Sam Miesegaes, a Dutch millionaire living in Switzerland who had a financial stake in the group, and who was also to be responsible for kick-starting Supertramp. In fact Supertramp became the warm-up band for Mainhorse Airline in the early days of MHA when they were supporting the likes of Free, Humble Pie and Canned Heat. They toiled for long hours in a studio in Geneva through 1969/1970, using open mikes, giving a feeling of an almost live performance. After some time, David, who had been working at a ferocious pace non-stop for over 4 years, collapsed with a heart attack brought on by sheer exhaustion. In 1978 he teamed up with John Cale for his album Some Things Never Change on A&M, with Chris Spedding and Ollie Halsall. After that Kubie went to Yugoslavia and joined "Stienje" a rock band which enjoyed national success before the Balkan Wars after which it was rumoured he had been killed in crossfire between the Serbs and Croats. In 2007 Kubie is active on Myspace (www.myspace.com/davidkubinec) and saw the CD re-release of both the Rats and the Mainhorse Airline albums. His solo albums however, still await to be re-released on CD.
