I think you were born in Canterbury in July 1958.

That's right.

Is that where you were brought up?

Until I was about 13 and then I moved to London. I then met the rest of the Boys when I was about 17.

You were at school with Jack Black, Jim Penfold and Neil Aplin. You formed the "Matinee Idols" with them.

Yes briefly. Jim and Neil lived in Hastings so Jack and I went down to Hastings a couple of times but Jack didn't last long. So I used to go down there on a weekend and play places like Hastings pier until eventually I found the Boys in London and that was that.

What songs did you play?

They were Jim's songs and very much his teenage writing. He was always very sixties influenced and it took a while for him to write some good songs. So I don't think we played particularly good songs at the time.

Did you record any demos?

It's hard to say. I don't think so, there might have been some very rough ones recorded on a cassette in the corner or something but I don't remember going into a studio.

Had you started writing any songs of your own?

No I didn't really start writing or trying to write songs until the Boys. I never was a prolific songwriter.

You went to school with Jack and worked in a T shirt factory with John.

And Jack, he got the job originally. It was a T shirt factory near to where he lived in Chiswick. He got me the job and John also happened to work there. It was through John that we started playing over in Matt's four-track studio in Maida Vale, which is where at that time, just prior to the punk thing everybody used to go. Everybody had long hair and there would be a longhaired Mick Jones round there telling everyone to listen to Bob Dylan because he was a big Dylan freak. There'd also be Billy Idol, Tony James and people from the Sex Pistols who'd just go round to Matt's studio and play with whoever turned up. I remember people from the Damned were there as well, Bryan James used to go down and I think Rat Scabies did as well. Everybody used to go down there and suddenly everybody had these various bands who were in the NME and getting record deals.

Was that when the London SS thing was going on?

I think that was just prior to it. I don't think that the London SS was a very serious band and I'm not sure they even played a gig to tell you the truth. I might be wrong because it was slightly before my time. I think it was mainly Matt, Cas and Tony James; they had a go at forming a band.

So you didn't have to get through an audition to join the Boys?

No we just started and off we went.

So you were you actually recruited as a bassist and not as a vocalist/bassist?

That's right.

Around that time you were given the nickname "Kid". How did that come about?

Well I was always ridiculously young looking, I mean when I was 18 I could go half price on the buses so that was where it came from.

When you first joined the Boys Jack and yourself were teenagers whereas Cas, John and Matt were in their mid twenties and obviously more experienced. How did that affect you?

There was always a slight bit of tension between us youngsters and the old wrinklies but basically over the years we got on pretty well. There's always a funny kind of tension in bands anyway, especially when you're touring. You're living in each other's pockets. There's always a kind of rivalry in a band, you always try and push yourself forward. So there were tensions but basically we got on.

Tell me about your first few dates with the Boys. What were they like?

The first date was at a place called the Hope and Anchor in Islington and I remember Joe Strummer and various other people being in the audience. We were so so. The second date was at a club called the Brecknock near Islington somewhere. I remember hiring a van and my Dad drove us to the gig . There were about three Irishmen and a dog in the audience and it was pretty awful. We didn't really become good until we got a residency at a club in Paris where we had to play twice a night for about a week and after doing that we were really shit hot. We went from there on to a tour with, I think John Cale, and from there on in we were always very good live.

So when was it in 1976 you actually started playing live?

I really can't remember.

Why did you sign to NEMS?

Well I suppose it was because we weren't sure that anyone else was going to come along and we wanted to get a record out. As it happened Polydor offered us a deal fairly soon after signing but NEMS didn't want to let us go because we were pretty hot at the time and everybody had great expectations. Yeah that was basically it; it's never that easy to get a record deal so if someone offers you one you tend to take it.

Did you feel it was a good deal at the time?

Well I was pretty naïve about what was a good and what was a bad deal but I don't think we ever thought it was a good deal.

What is the story about Polydor wanting to buy out your contract?

Again just the fact that a few weeks later they wanted to sign us and I believe some negotiations took place with NEMS to buy us out of that contract and take us onto Polydor. Presumably the price was too high.

You then brought out "I Don't Care"/"Soda Pressing" in April 1977. Who produced that single?

There wasn't a named producer as such. I remember it was recorded with some mobile recording gear in a room in Victoria and there was a guy, an Irishman who was operating the table and sort of producing it. I can't even remember the guy's name. I've a feeling he'd done a pretty weird selection before. Bands like Horslips or something. He seemed quite in tune with us. Like on "I Don't Care" when we said we wanted a John Lennon type feel to the vocal he knew what we were on about.

Did you think it may have a chance of getting into the charts?

I think we always felt with our singles that we did, although personally I never felt that "I Don't Care" was one of our strongest tracks; I know there are people who really like it but it was never one of my favourites.

Then you started recording your first album, which was produced by Pete Gage. How did you feel about the mix when he brought it to you?

Well we just thought it was totally wrong. It had Hammond Organ all over the place and it just didn't sound raw enough, the guitars were weak and the mix was all wrong. When we were recording it in the studio the rough mixes at the time sounded great, but it was the mix we were not happy with so we went back in and remixed it. And with hindsight I don't think we did as good a job as we should have done, the vocals are still too low and it would have improved a lot had they been higher, but overall it's okay.

You re-recorded "I Don't Care" and "Soda Pressing" for the album. Why was that?

To put the original single versions on the album meant that they would have sounded different as opposed to having the same sound as the rest of the songs and it sounding like an album. We also felt that we could do them better.

"Rock Relic" and "Boys" didn't appear on the album. Why was that?

"Rock Relic" became what was it called?

"Not Ready".

That's right it was on "Alternative Chartbusters", I don't know why it didn't appear. I'm not sure it was written at the time the first Boys album was recorded. And "Boys" didn't appear on the album because it was just a cover version we used to play live, but never that seriously; we recorded it for John Peel.

Apparently one of the reasons you didn't sing more on "To Hell With The Boys" was that the producer wasn't too happy with your vocals.

That's right. I never understood it at the time and still don't.

"Whatcha Gonna Do" is a great song and didn't make the first album. What were your thoughts on that?

I never used to get upset if my songs didn't make the albums as long as there were enough good songs on them.

Apart from the occasional exception Matt and Cas were writing most of the early Boys material. Did you ever consider writing more songs?

I always tried but it's something I never found that easy.

Did the Boys actually record some of your songs, which weren't released?

Yes, I think there were some demos around of stuff that I'd written but not a huge number.

Can you remember any examples?

No I can't, I've largely forgotten them.

"First Time" is very commercial. Did you feel it had the potential to be a hit?

Oh definitely. It was single of the week in NME and went straight into the charts at some position and we thought here we go. And then we were just stunned when it fell away, we just couldn't understand it at all.

Was that NEMS' fault?

Yeah I would say so, they didn't have the clout. At the time the charts used to be rigged and people used to get into the charts because the record companies, especially the majors, had the power to buy you in. Once you'd got into the charts you got onto Top Of The Pops and all the other exposure followed, so I suspect we didn't benefit from that either.

As you are aware "First Time" was edited. With hindsight do you think it should have been?

No. I remember at the time totally agreeing that the short version was right; at the time it was the fashion for short songs, everything had to be short and fast and it seemed right. With hindsight the long version is tons better.

In your opinion what impact did Elvis' death have on The Boys chances of success?

Well I remember we were being distributed by RCA and getting quite a bit of help from them. Suddenly after Elvis' death they started shifting bucket loads of his records which meant that perhaps not as much attention was being paid to us.

Did you feel you could do anything about it?

No not really, there was a lot of frustration at the time. I suppose it's the frustration of any situation when you think you're really good but you can't quite get started or it doesn't take off.

You co-wrote "Teachers Pet" with John and Jack. How did that come about?

I'm not really sure, in fact I couldn't tell you which bit I wrote. I think Jack was playing around with a song on an acoustic guitar he'd co-written with John and I said "why don't you stick this bit in there", so he did.

Who wrote the lyrics?

Jack.

"Taking On The World" is the only song you wrote on your own to appear on a Boys album. Were you pleased it made it on to "Alternative Chartbusters"?

Yeah I was very pleased.

Were the rest of the band happy to include it?

I don't know.

What did you think of "Alternative Chartbusters"?

I thought it was great, really good. When we recorded it we really thought it was something special. You always tend to think that when you're recording an album but we really thought it was good. We had a great time recording it as well. We recorded it down at Rockfield in the middle of Wales and there were all sorts of people dropping in. All the people in the other studios seemed to be popping in and doing something. I remember on "Cast Of Thousands" a band called Deaf School came in and wrecked all their voices singing on it; their album probably suffered for it. It was really good.

Were any tracks on "Alternative Chartbusters" considered as a follow up to "Brickfield Nights"?

No. Again there should have been a follow up single but by that time I think relations with NEMS had broken down, so maybe that's why.

What would you consider to be the standout tracks on "Alternative Chartbusters"?

Oh, it's been a while since I've listened to it. I liked "Classified Susie" and "Brickfield Nights" but to be honest with you I like the whole album.

You then recorded the second John Peel session which included a new version of "TCP" with the "BBC" lyrics. Whose idea was that?

I think it was a collective idea. Most of the funniest ideas usually came from Cas but I think it was something that was just discussed and then written. Yeah a lot of the ideas like that would just come out of a conversation.

That was obviously Cas' idea to record that.

Yeah he was getting big into Country and Western at that time. I think he was going through a bit of a dodgy spell in his own private life so he was hitting the bottle a lot and listening to country records.

What did you do to get released from your contract with NEMS?

Nothing, literally. We just did nothing.

You went on strike?

Yes, I mean it was a good story going on strike. I suppose literally that's what we did, we just decided we'd do nothing until they gave up. Again it was the incredible self belief we had at the time but we probably lost a lot of momentum, although eventually when we came back and played again there was still a big following there. With hindsight by then our time had probably passed and that was that. There wasn't any point struggling on with NEMS really.

I remember a press release stating that you had been cooking hamburgers.

Was that in the press release?

Yeah.

I did work at a club called The Venue which was owned by Richard Branson. I ended up as a chef there not knowing how to cook anything. I had a friend in the kitchen who said why don't you help me out and then he resigned after I started. He was a qualified chef so I ended up running the kitchen for a few weeks not knowing what the hell I was doing. I remember Richard Branson coming down one night and asking for an egg salad and I put some lettuce and a raw egg in a bowl and gave it to him!

Around that time the Boys recorded a four-track demo backing Jim Penfold. How did that come about?

I was probably doing some gigs with Jim again at that time. Jim was trying as hard as he could to get some attention somewhere so he asked me if I'd ask the others to do some demos with him so I asked them and they agreed.

Did Jim notice?

Oh yeah he did.

How did "Waiting For The Lady" come to be recorded by the Boys?

Again it was just me putting forward a song that I had co-written with Jim saying that it was a good song and that we should put it on the album.

You then signed with Safari. What was your relationship with them like?

It was good. Again they were a small independent label so they never had the clout of a major but they certainly believed in the Boys and put everything that they could into it. We were signed at the same time as Toyah and out of the two of us obviously Toyah was the band that took off. We got on personally very well with a guy at Safari called John Craig; we were always good friends with him and I think it was as much a cause of sadness for him on a personal level as on a financial one that we never took off. He would have loved it on both scores if we'd been successful. I remember he loved having us around and going out for a curry and getting drunk and going back and polishing off all his good wine!

What did you think of the final mix of the album?

I thought the engineers in the studio were great. I didn't like the actual mix they did though, and I obviously disagreed with the idea of Matt singing everything. The mix sounded a bit old fashioned to me at the time so I actually preferred the remix we did in London.

Could you tell me about the remix in London?

Basically we got hold of the master tapes in Norway and brought them back to London and re-recorded some vocals, mainly my vocals on "Terminal Love" and "Rue Morgue". We then remixed the album taking out a lot of the saxophone type elements on it.

How did Matt come to sing "Waiting For The Lady" because you had written it with Jim Penfold?

As you said earlier for some reason the Norwegian producers didn't think that my voice was up to scratch. I had to come back to London early for some reason and left everybody in Norway. The next thing I knew there was a whole mix of an album without my voice on it at all.

Shortly after that you were invited to perform live on the Whistle Test. What did you think about your performance?

It was interesting. It was the first time we'd performed live on TV. We'd been on the TV before but that was a video we'd done for the Paul Nicholas Show. I thought it was okay. It wasn't brilliant, but it was okay.

You certainly bounced around a bit.

Yeah well I used to in those days, I was full of energy.

You were then invited to join the Ramones tour. What were your thoughts about that?

I'd always been bananas about the Ramones. I thought they were one of the best bands ever and it was great to have the chance to tour with them and see them every night. On the first gig we did with them at Brighton Johnny Ramone turned up with "Alternative Chartbusters" and said it was one of his favourite albums. We got on with them really well. They were a funny bunch, a really funny bunch. The drummer at the time, Marky, always used to sneak into our dressing room for a beer because if he got caught by the rest of them he used to be fined. They were run like a military operation, they really were. It used to make me laugh that they had everything choreographed such as when they'd take their jackets off. If they got anything wrong or they made a mistake they used to get fined. The other thing that used to make me laugh was that Joey would have a piece of paper stuck on his foldback speaker telling him where he was. At the same time every night he'd stop and say "I'd like to thank you all for coming here to.…[looks down]….Cambridge" or wherever.

Just Cas and yourself?

Yes.

After the tour you recorded a concert for the BBC which has recently been released.

It sounds great, I have to say it really does sound good.

You were obviously pleased with it?

Yeah it was the first time I'd heard it recently when it was put out by Vinyl Japan and I thought it really did sound good.

Was it planned as the follow up to "Terminal Love"?

I think it was just that we had this song we thought was really strong and went into the studio to record it because we thought it might make a single. We then didn't think that much of it so it just got thrown away.

Shortly after that Casino left the Boys. What impact did his departure have?

Oh I think it was very detrimental. He's a great character for a start so a lot of the character of the Boys was contributed by him. His song writing was obviously very strong and that was a great loss and the other thing he is superb at is backing vocals. His high backing vocals are just brilliant and make all the choruses sound better. He was a great loss.

Did the Boys consider finishing after he left?

No they didn't, we all just assumed we'd carry on.

Rudi?

Yeah, or was that with Cas. I maybe confused there but in any case we thought we'd carry on, give it a go and see how it would turn out.

Tell me about the early Yobs singles?

The first one we recorded was "Run Rudolph Run" which had always been a favourite track of Cas', he'd always really liked the Keith Richards version. The idea was to do a Christmas single and Andrew Matheson, who used to be in the Hollywood Brats was over. We used to go into a studio in Berwick Street and we were in there anyway doing demos. So we thought we'll just knock it out with Andrew singing. And I think it was John, although I can't be sure, had this idea of doing "The Worm Song" which we thought would be funny and we literally recorded it just like that. And of course it's "The Worm Song" that everybody remembers because it's brilliant whereas "Run Rudolph Run" is slightly average. So it was just one of those things, one of those happy accidents really; a good idea that was recorded just like that and sounds great. And then I think the idea for the Yobs album was John Craig's. We always used to stagger people at the rate we could record demos; we used to go into the studio and knock out scores of songs and they'd run out of tape because we'd just bash them out 1-2-3-4. So John Craig had this idea and said why don't you go into the studio and bash out a load of Christmas stuff and that's what we did. It was Eel Pie studios which belonged to Pete Townsend. I think the whole thing was sung, recorded, mixed and finished in two days which was a great way to record because recording can get bloody boring.

Before that you did "Silent Night". Whose idea was that?

It's hard to say. I should think it was probably John and Matt's.

Around the same time as you were doing the Yobs album you obviously recorded "Boys Only".

"Boys Only" came later didn't it.

"Boys Only" came out in January 1981 and the Yobs album in November 1980 but I think they were recorded around the same time. Anyway "Weekend" came out in October 1980 and became Peter Powell's record of the week. Did you think you were finally going to have a hit?

No by that time we just didn't take anything for granted, we just waited to see. It got some TV exposure as well. Noel Edmonds had a Saturday morning programme and the video was shown on there.

Were you surprised at that?

Well yes because the original video was shot in Soho with loads of porn shops everywhere and I think they had to have a re-edit to show it. I think that at that time Safari had got a decent plugger on the case. So the fact that we were getting Radio 1 singles of the week and appearances on the TV, not a huge amount but some, and the Radio 1 In Concert was a sign of how much better a job Safari was doing than NEMS.

We've touched on the vocals issue earlier and I find it amazing you sing on only two tracks on "Boys Only".

And then it was very much as an afterthought. The songs weren't rehearsed to get the best out of the vocals; it was strange because in the early days we always used to rehearse songs with the vocals. I remember rehearsing the whole of "Boys Only" and being staggered that we weren't rehearsing any of the vocals at all. I thought it was a mistake.

And John sung on four tracks.

One of them "Monotony", we actually both laid down a vocal track for and everybody voted to have John's vocal.

So there's a recording of "Monotony" somewhere with you singing the lead vocals?

Whether it got wiped or not I don't know but the original master might still have it.

At that time was there any animosity between yourself and Matt or any of the others?

No not at all. We've always been friendly.

After you left the Boys played at the 100 Club with Howard Wall on lead vocals.

Yes I went to see it.

How did that feel?

It was incredibly interesting because I'd never had the chance to stand out in the audience and see The Boys. I thought it sounded great. I thought Matt and John's guitars just sounded brilliant. Being in the audience it sounded great but it was boring as hell because they needed a good frontman (joke)!

There may have been parts of old recordings but there were definitely new bits in there.

You'd have to check this with Matt. It might have been the old album cut together with maybe some new bits to make it flow. I don't remember being involved with that.

After you left the Boys what did you do?

I started playing in the Hollywood Killers with Jim Penfold again and for a while that went incredibly well. We built up a really big following in London and played at places like the Hammesmith Palais to well over 1,000 people; we'd got a really big following and had one single out, again on a small label. But pretty soon into that I decided that I was going to stop playing music. I'd been doing it since I was 17 and I was still very young, about 22 but had decided that I didn't like what I was hearing on the radio and what was in the charts. I also felt that I had lost the great passion to do it any more so I decided to go to university and see what came of that, which is what I did.

What were the Hollywood Killers like live?

Oh really good. We started off not very good with a lot of patchy material but by the end we had a good set of material. I was still bouncing around like a dervish and enjoyed it at that time because I was very much the sideman to Jim's frontman. I enjoyed that because the pressure was off, although I was singing all the harmonies and a couple of tracks myself which I'd written and which were good songs. I really enjoyed it. All the gigs were good fun and we used to get a lot of good looking girls, I think it was Jim's debonair looks and voice. Yeah it was good fun.

You signed to Creole. What was your relationship with them like?

It was okay but we never expected much. They put us in the studio and put a single out and it didn't get anywhere. They got us on Radio 1 In Concert so they did an okay job. But our look wasn't fashionable at the time. It was a pretty pop-y band but everybody else had the New Romantic hairstyles and we looked like the Small Faces.

You co-wrote the B-side of the single, "Killer Wail". How did that come about?

It was basically just a jam. We were having a bit of fun trying to make a record that sounded like Booker T And The MG's and that basically is what it was.

Were you writing more songs at that time?

Yes I was.

How would you feel about the Hollywood Killers material being released?

I'd feel happy if the best of it were released as there's some stuff we did that's not really good enough to be released.

When did you leave the Hollywood Killers?

Well it just sort of petered out. There was a period when I was going to university in the day and playing with them at night. In fact there was one time when we recorded something down in Oxford and I was recording all night and then going to university during the day. Eventually I said this is it. I'm not going to be a musician any more so that was that.

The original line up excluding yourself recently re-recorded several tracks including "Elizabethan Man". Why didn't you take part?

I didn't know about it. I spoke to Jim on the phone a few years ago and he seemed happy enough, he's always doing bits and pieces. He had lots of versions of the Hollywood Killers after I left and he's always had a huge number of people that he's played with.

Which University did you go to?

Imperial College.

What were you studying?

An engineering degree. I'd had these "A" levels left over from when I went to school, which was very unstreet cred at the time but thank god I did. It gave me something to do for 3 years until I worked out what I was going to do with the rest of my life.

You then went to work for Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Yeah. First off I went to work for Deloite and Touche mainly because I just wanted to learn something about business and didn't intend to get back into the music business at all. Quite by luck I happened across a bloke who I work with now called Patrick McKenna, who had the top list of entertainment business clients in London. I was sitting there as this young trainee one day listening to another person in the office. He was talking about things in the music business and I said to him no that's not right this is right. Somebody else said how do you know and I said this is what I used to do, I know the music business. So I got on quite well then. One of the most successful people we worked for was Andrew Lloyd Webber and the Really Useful Group. Patrick left to run it and I joined a little later. We had about six years, for our sins, saturating the world with Andrew Lloyd Webber but it was exciting because we were conquering the world with these shows, putting them on all over the world and also doing film deals and all the rest of it. I then left there and spent a couple of years as Finance Director at Nottingham Forest which again was great fun. I did the floatation but decided that in the end I couldn't make enough of a difference to keep them in the Premier League. Football is too difficult a business unless you're Manchester United. If you don't have that much money it's very difficult to compete. I then started this business with Patrick.

What did you do after leaving Nottingham Forest?

I started up this business a couple of years ago. We've got a film financing arm and also work with people in the entertainment business to help them develop their business and raise money.

In the early 1990's Campino was becoming well known as was his love for The Boys. How did you feel about that?

I didn't really know who he was. I was called up by Matt one day to say he was going to do an unplugged album and would I like to play so I said fine. I had a young daughter at the time, I think she was about 3 years old, and I took her down to the studio. She had a good laugh running round twiddling with all the knobs and pulling all the leads out. Campino was there and I recorded all the bass parts in an afternoon which I think impressed him. We went out for a curry later and I thought he was a really nice, genuine bloke. John said that he'd played with him in Germany and was playing stadiums to hundreds of thousands of people and that he was really big. He just seemed really nice.

You recorded "Powercut" in 1996.

Yeah that's right it was in the middle of Euro 96, I remember stopping to go watch the England v Switzerland game and then coming back and carrying on.

He actually wrote it himself but it appeared on Ian Hunter's "Dirty Laundry" album and it also appeared on the Crybabys album prior to that.

Yeah it was a good song. Campino was going to pay for the album to be made but then he was quite pleased when he got hold of all the "Odds and Sods" outtakes and he put that out instead.

How did you feel about Campino singing on "Powercut" instead of Matt and yourself?

Basically I didn't mind. Really by that time I was quite amazed that we were doing anything at all and it didn't really matter to me. It was something I was doing for a bit of fun and if someone else was going to sing it didn't really matter to me at all.

I believe around that time there was the possibility of a few Boys dates in Germany?

I think they did some didn't they but I'd just spent about 2 years working in Germany. If you spend 2 years living in hotels away from your family, travelling backwards and forwards you tend to go off a place, although I'd be delighted to go there now. The German's are very nice people but no I didn't want to do it.

In 1990 "Live at The Roxy" was released allegedly from 1977. I think it was actually recorded in the 1979/80 period.

I haven't heard it I have to say. I think it was John who told me he thought it was crap. It was a terrible recording. I don't know whether that was the night that Jimmy Page and John Bonham turned up on stage. There was one night we were playing down there and Led Zeppelin were all there and apparently tried to get on stage. I didn't know but Jack told them to fuck off. If I'd known at the time I'd have asked Jack to get off his drums and let John Bonham play; it would have been interesting.

Following Michelle Gun Elephant's success there was a lot of Boys activity in 1999 culminating in the two dates in Japan. How did the dates go?

They went okay considering. Certainly the first time we got together the rehearsal was bloody awful and the first gig wasn't particularly good. It was incredibly hot and the guitar strings were breaking all over the place. As much as we'd rehearsed we just were not tight at all but the second gig was actually really good. It was bloody strange because the Boys were so much about youth and being young. To be standing there as a 40 year old man playing to a load of 18 year old Japanese kids, who weren't even born the last time we played, singing about running away from cop cars and having it off for the first time was just really really strange. But great fun, if it wasn't great fun it wouldn't be worth it because it certainly wasn't a sensible thing to do. But I'm certainly glad I did it, I really enjoyed it.

Did it feel strange without Jack being there?

No not really, you've got to remember it was 20 years ago, a heck of a long time and Vom was great, a really nice bloke and a great drummer; he knew the songs better than we did. He really enjoyed himself, I think he felt quite honoured to be asked to do it and it was great that he was there because he was really good. And once he's had a few he's an animal, like all drummers, and he certainly kept us amused.

How would you feel about that being released?

Oh I doubt whether that would be a good idea to see a load of old 40 year old men who are well passed their prime but it would be interesting to see.

Can you remember the Boys appearing on any TV shows?

There was one in particular in Germany, I don't know what it was called but it was the sort of equivalent of Top Of The Pops and we played "You Better Move On" but there wasn't a great deal of TV.

What did you think of the Vinyl Japan tribute album?

I enjoyed listening to it, I thought a lot of the tracks were played better than we played them.

How come so many great songs remained unreleased when you were together?

I don't know. Lack of judgement I suppose.

What do you think of the Boys website?

Oh it's fun. I like logging in and seeing the messages that are left there; it keeps me amused. Again I'm just stunned by the fact that this band won't die. As far as the website goes it's just stunning to see all that interest. Quite amazing really.

You've left a few messages on there yourself.

Yeah well it's fun to leave one every now and then.

What improvements would you like to see made to the website?

Well it's a pretty simple website. It would be great to have more contributions, maybe this interview will be on there. Obviously the main thing to it is the guestbook.

Do you read "Backstage Pass"?

No I don't, I just don't have the time.

In a recent poll 85% of Boys fans voted for you as their favourite (or joint favourite) vocalist.

There was only about 13 people voted though wasn't there! I don't know how representative it is. I agree with the result though!

There appears to be a growing interest in the music of the Boys, particularly from young bands who weren't there first time around. How does that make you feel?

Well it's remarkable and pleasing that people still listen to us and makes it all worth while.

How would you feel about recording a new Boys album?

I'm not that fussed really. Obviously like everybody else I spend a lot of time working and then I've got a family as well so fitting it in for one thing is an issue. Again it can never be the same band of 20 years ago because the Boys were so much about youth and being young and they just cannot be that band again.

What about a solo album?

No again as I mentioned earlier I don't have a passion for music anymore. I definitely did when I was in the Boys but I lost that ages ago. It's not a huge part of my life so it's not one of the main things I'm interested in.

What would you consider to be the best song you wrote?

I honestly don't know.

Ken Mewis thought of you as the second Rolling Stones. You have been called "The Beatles of Punk". What do you think?

We certainly wanted to be the next Rolling Stones and there were Stones and Beatles influences there. Also the Ramones of course who were the other huge influence so it was an amalgam of the three really.

In your opinion why didn't the Boys make it big?

There were lots of reasons and lots of things that could have been done better. But I think that at the end of the day we had a certain amount of exposure and played live a lot but there weren't enough people who came across us who went bonkers about us. You have to say that must be the case otherwise it would have grown by word of mouth.

What type of music do you listen to now?

Not a lot. I mean my favourite music is still anything that's got a guitar in it. I think the last CD I actually bought was a Travis CD which isn't loud guitar, normally I like loud guitar, but it's guitar based music. I've enjoyed a lot of Blur.

What are your plans for the future?

Obviously my plans for the future surround the business that I have now, that's been set up for a couple of years now and also my family. They are the two most important things in my life.

It's your own business then?

With my partner.