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Sometime later he was standing at a bus stop one day when his school friend Duggie Brown came driving by in his dad’s car and stopped to pick up George.  They got talking and Duggie told him he was playing guitar in a band called The Four Imps. They discussed the idea of forming their own group and it wasn’t long before they recruited a neighbour Bill Brown on drums.  He actually only played pots and pans at this time but developed into a first rate drummer! They needed a fourth player and found Barry Winders who was a good jiver and real showman and obvious front man. They hoped he was also a good guitarist and singer as well but recruited him anyway and the Kool Katz skiffle group was formed.  The line up was Barrie Winders (lead vocal and rhythm guitar), Duggie Brown (lead guitar), George Payling (bass) and Bill Brown (drums).  (After the demise of the Kool Katz, Duggie went on to be a comedian and TV actor becoming a household name in The Comedians in 1971, his older sister was actress and singer Lynne Perrie.) They were all 17 or 18 years old at that time.
They started rehearsing and soon got work at a local cinema in Sheffield where they would play between the films for ten minutes. Many years later George joked about it saying “we didn’t get paid; the important thing was to get the birds”.
The manager of the cinema was an old theatrical comedian who had lots of contacts. He got in touch with Don Moss an agent pall of his in London and he fixed them up with a week in a striptease show at the City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds.  After Leeds they got a job in the Continental Palace Theatre in Hull where they met a couple of people who were working in Scotland. They said they would put a word in for the band with the person they worked for about getting work in Scotland.  George didn’t expect to hear any more but he did, and the band ended up at the old Metropole Theatre in Glasgow where they played for five weeks. At this time, George moved from Rotherham to Greenock with the prospect of more work in Scotland but the other band members remained in Yorkshire.
In 1958 they won the Stanley Dale’s National Skiffle contest and this led to an appearance on the BBC TV’s 6-5 special programme where 21 skiffle groups appeared on the programme between February and August 1958.  They did the outside broadcast in June 1958 and were introduced by actor and comedian Terry Scott. Marty Wilde and Jim Dale were also on the bill that day.
It was while they were playing at the Metropole, that George met 16 year old chorus girl Mary who would become his wife in 1962.  The band realised if you work in variety theatre you need to be more than just a music act.  So the Kool Katz developed into a comedy skiffle act. Drummer Bill Brown was an important influence as he was a natural comedian.
They continued working in Scotland doing summer season in Perth. By this time, they had developed into more of a variety act singing in the chorus, dancing, comic sketches and feeding the comedians. In between variety, they did tours of Turkey and Greece in the mid 60s; they had eight weeks in South Africa and also went to Germany where they worked on American air bases. As a group, they played with many big names including Frankie Vaughan, Dickie Henderson, Michael Holiday and PJ Proby.  On one occasion, Frankie Vaughan wanted to poach their drummer Bill Brown for his band but he turned him down.  At some time in the 60s, the name of the band was changed to The Douglas Brown Four.  In 1969 they recorded one track, ‘Sign Of The Stars’ for a compilation album called Heather Showcase which included Jimmy Shand, The Karlins and The Furys. The band stayed together for 12 years touring extensively in the UK where they were very popular on the American air bases.
The band eventually came to a natural end. After an extensive tour of London when George got home to Greenock in 1970 he felt it was time to call it a day. The band folded and George got a job at the Scott Lithgow shipyard in Greeenock where he stayed for a year. He did local gigs with bands during this time. After leaving the shipyard he didn’t want to go touring again so started working in the lounge bars in Ayr with Billy Simpson working as duo Pain & Simpson.
George Jnr was born in February 1963. In 1971 the family moved from Greenock to Ayr on the west coast where they initially lived in a caravan on Low Corton farm before they were able to rent a house. The move was convenient for Mary who choreographed and produced shows for the Gaiety Theatre and went on to run The Gaiety Stage School for young dancers. During this period, George Snr was a member of a 4-piece musical comedy act called The Four Naturals (George Payling, Jimmy Nairn, Alan Waterson and Frank Welchman) and they appeared in the Gaiety Theatre’s summer season,  ‘Gaiety Whirl on 1971’  which opened on 5th August that year. The act later dropped down to a duo with just George and Jimmy Nairn, who was a sax and piano player.
While in Ayr, George got to know Ronnie Christie who had a long held ambition to be in a band; Ronnie was one of the Krankie Kids. Jeanette Krankie (of the Krankies) formed her first showbiz act, The Krankie Kids with friend Margaret Murray in 1964. Ronnie sang and played guitar as one of the Krankie Kids. Ronnie and George both got a job in singer Sydney Devine’s band. Sydney Devine first came to fame in 1957 when he came second in competition to find “Scotland’s Tommy Steele” (the winner was Alex Harvey who later formed The Sensational Alex Harvey Band)
George and Ronnie stayed with Sydney’s band for two years touring all over the UK and attracting a record attendance at the Glasgow Apollo, the city’s leading music venue. When they left the band, they formed the duo New Ovation, named after Sydney’s Ovation guitar. They enjoyed a highly successful partnership at a time when variety theatre, television and light entertainment was buoyant; they appeared in countless summer season variety shows and pantomimes. One of many TV programmes included ‘Thingummyjig’ one of Scottish TV’s most-watched shows with a combination of traditional Scottish music and dance – and top variety acts. They appeared on the programme with Scottish singing duo Fran & Anna to promote their single. Their act was a mixture of singing and comedy but they did include a lot of Country.
In 1978 they recorded a vinyl album for Lismor records on the Neptune label which was predominantly Country. George Jnr played trombone on one of Ronnie’s songs ‘Y’ Goin’ Away’. They also released a single that year, The Ballad Of Fran & Anna which was written by Ronnie and paid homage to the famous Scottish singing duo that were known for their tartan miniskirts, rouged cheeks and fishnet stockings. A second album called Country Favourites followed in 1979.  The two albums were recorded at Ken Andrews’ studio; Ken was the drummer with pop band Middle Of The Road. A video was also made there.
As George Jnr was born into a musical family it is no surprise that music played an important part in his life from an early age. He was taught to play the trombone at school and he was soon playing the instrument in a brass band and in a big band that played at the pavilion at Ayr beach. He also played a little guitar learning bass first, this was self taught and he played in a band with people at school. Later he played in some function bands locally until a job came up at the Youth Theatre at the Gaiety Theatre where his mum, Mary, ran the Stage School.
He started working in a small band that was playing Scottish ceildh music (drums, accordion, bass and piano). While playing in a function band his dad got a phone call to say Sydney Devine was looking for a bass player. His dad had already left Syndey’s band by this time but George Jnr took the job and played with Sydney Devine for nine months touring all round the UK. He wasn’t very enthusiastic about touring and, when a job closer to home playing in the Gaiety pit orchestra came up, he jumped at it.
As George Snr and Ronnie already had a lot of theatrical experience and had already done a lot theatre work in Scotland they did their first panto together, Jack and The Beanstalk at the Ayr Civic Theatre in 1977, playing Jack and Andy with Robert Johnston as the giant. After that, the manager of the Gaiety Theatre asked them to do pantomimes. These included Cinderella with Anne Fields 1978/79, Aladdin in 1979/80 where they played Wishee and Washeee, Dick Whittington with Denny Willis in 1980/81 and Jack & The Beanstalk with Andy Cameron in 1981/82.
Working in the pit orchestra, George Jnr would do the summer season shows (often 24 weeks in those days) and the pantomimes which usually ran from the end of November to the end of January. He loved the job because it was local and he could go home after work.  After 18 months in the pit orchestra, his dad was in Jack & The Beanstalk  in 1981.  Ronnie told George that his wife was taking a job in Australia and he would be going with her which would bring an end to their six year partnership. George leaned over to his son during rehearsals and said “Ronnie’s going to emigrate, do you fancy doing something with me?”  George jumped at the opportunity, and started to learn guitar and piano before forming The Two Geez duo with his dad.  Their name was a play on words; geez is Scottish slang but they were also the two Gs as they were both George Payling. They started with a few local venues like pubs and lounge bars.
Within a couple of years, they were very busy often working seven days a week with two gigs on a Sunday. All the work was in Scotland and they played a mixture of Country, middle of the road and chart songs.  George Jnr used to record the chart show on the radio on a Sunday evening to see what was moving up the charts so they could learn all the latest songs that were on their way up. In 1984 George Snr wanted to get his younger son Simon involved so he bought him a drum kit and got him to learn how to play drums. When Simon joined, The Two Geez became The Geez.
At that time, George and Mary went to local Country clubs where they thought the atmosphere was great with people actually listening to the songs rather than ignoring the band while they carried on conversations. George Snr brought some Country albums back following a visit to Canada. One of these albums was Hoyt Axton’s Della and the Dealer. This album was to be a game changer for them; George said to his sons “this is the sort of material we should be doing”.
One of the bands they saw at one local club was Nashville Fever and George Snr said “We could do this, it would be great”. And that is what they did. By 1985 they were including more country material but still working as The Geez. In 1988 they decided that they would only do Country but they needed a new name. There were two popular bands in Scotland called Texas and Gun (a rock band) so George Snr decided to put the two names together and The Geez became Texas Gun. In 1989 they started touring out of Scotland and came south for the first time to play the Strumpshaw festival in Norfolk.  This was their springboard for opening up south of the border. George Snr’s various acts had always included humour so he brought some of that to Texas Gun which made them different from other bands.
Within six months, they had become extremely busy with up to 26 gigs a month.  The work was relentless but, for them, it was good. They bought a large van that was fitted with beds to keep costs down when touring. Early on, they did a lot of work for Tony Best working some of his Country weekends like Gunton Hall, Alveston Hall, Holme Lacy and Pontins at Prestatyn and many of his overseas holiday breaks. Texas Gun got numerous club awards.  They won the Southern Country (magazine) band of the year and were nominated in the BCMA awards when they were held at BBC Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham.
After working for Tony Best for 13 years, they started running their own Country holiday breaks in 2001 which were very successful. For 17 years they always did a New Year event in Scotland.  One of their most successful events involved taking 350 people on a Country music cruise around the Mediterranean.
By this time, work in clubs for bands was in decline so the holiday work took up some of the slack. They also diversified into providing sound and lighting and event production for many major UK Country festivals.  Simon was particularly interested in this side of the business.  With the popularity of cheaper solos and duos with backing tracks and rising costs combined with decreasing club attendance many clubs were no longer able to afford a band. Texas Gun finally called it a day in 2010. They were still getting quite a lot of corporate production work. George Jnr didn’t want to stop but Simon was more interested in the production work so the band came off the road. Neither George Jnr nor his dad were happy following the demise of the band.  George Jnr continued with the production work but he didn’t have the enthusiasm for it and after three years he said to his dad “shall we just go and do it ourselves?” His dad was happy to do that and it turned out to be one of the best things they ever did.  George said to me recently “we started with me and my dad and we went back to me and my dad”
They returned as Texas Gun duo in 2012 and loved it while Simon continued to work as a sound engineer.  When asked to say something he said “I was once told by a very wise man that an acceptance speech should be as long as it takes to make love to a woman!” He paused for a few seconds and said “thank you and good night!”
In 2016 George started an MA course in music at the Ayr Campus of the University of Scotland. This involved a lot of juggling work and university attendance but George really enjoyed doing it.  In 2018 he was awarded a Masters Degree in Music and Songwriting with a distinction and an academic medal for achievement; this is something he is still very proud of. He has never considered himself a songwriter and said to me recently, “I didn’t think I could write particularly well and I blagged my way through!” He has recorded one live album of 10 original songs called Lansbury Street. This is available as an MP3 download through Amazon. George Payling Snr was awarded a CCN award for Services To Industry in 2018. 
George Jnr’s son Ryan had always loved country music and he was keen to get the opportunity to sing.  In 2014 he was working at Donald Trump’s Turnbury Golf Resort, so George invited him to join the duo and see how he liked it. He jumped at the opportunity. They made the duo gigs stretch to three people so that Ryan could build up his confidence and gain some experience. He fitted in well and stayed with the band for three years but, by a mutual decision, he decided to leave the family act and pursue a solo career which has so far gone very well. He has also taken over from Nigel Slater as lead singer with The Breeze.  They won a CCN award for best band in 2023.
Texas Gun duo were always keen to be different to any other act on the Country circuit and, to help achieve this, George has always produced his own tracks rather than buy in the same tracks used by many other artists. His good friend Stuart Payne has provided some of the tracks as has steelie Derek Thurlby but apart from them, George plays or produces everything himself.
The duo obviously came off the road during the covid lockdown but George Jnr was keen to keep singing and started streaming.  He streamed a message and a song every day at around 6.30 in the morning. He spent a lot of time making sure that these songs were the best quality he could achieve. Sometimes George and his dad would appear together as Texas Gun Unplugged, some of these were hilarious.
See Texas Gun unplugged in the video at the end of this article (5 minutes). https://youtu.be/25g_8ua80ZU
Very sadly, George Payling Snr. passed away in July 2022 a few months before Texas Gun became the 53rd inductee into the British Country Music Hall Of Fame.  Had George lived to attend the induction he would have loved the accolade and made light of it in his own cheeky way. In accepting the award, George Jnr said “We are honoured and humbled by the recognition afforded us and will continue to keep it Country”. This was obviously a very difficult time for George and the rest of the Payling family. He decided to carry on as a soloist to delight audience with quality and great Country music which would have been George Snr’s dearest hope. George has developed into an excellent front man winning 2 CCN awards, one for Online Artist Of The Year in 2021 and then Male Artist Of The Year in 2022.George has no plans to retire but he would like to travel less but he doesn’t intend to limit gigs to closer to home.
See a video of Texas Gun playing at Nashville Country Music Club at St Albans, Hertfordshire on the 5th October 1992 (2 hours 17mins).