Rick: Perhaps the first thing we can talk about is your new album.

Kim Simmonds: It should be in the shops already, so I'm told. We recorded it about two months ago, and I think it's our best album to date.

Rick: Can you tell me about the sound?

Kim: It's a lot different from our last albums, it's got a lot more influences outside the blues. Like, for instance, there's a couple of tracks with harmonies on them. Which we've never tried before. It's a most satisfying album for me, because we did... we just went in there and played what we played without manufacturing any sounds, which means that we can go on stage and play the same thing. It's more real. In the past we've gone into a studio and put horns on things, manufactured sounds which weren't quite what we were on stage, which always pissed me off, you know? With this band here, well, what I like about it is that it's real.

Rick: You've changed the band since you were here last.

Kim: I changed the band. The band that last played here was like a changed thing, and it just wasn't working out. I made a mistake there, I got some wrong fellows and they couldn't do the tunes, so I got rid of them and got some new people. You have just got to get the right people that you can work with.

Rick: How's the tour going?

Kim: Excellent so far. This is our second week. All the gigs have been really great so far.

Rick: So you haven't been here long. What's happening in England these days?

Kim: It depends what your taste is. Personally, in the music I like, and the music I like to play, England is dead. As far as R&B and blues go, there's very little market for it. But as far as Pop and general music go, it's a good scene.

Rick: How would you explain the Black Sabbath thing that's happening?

Kim: It's just a reaction against more serious type of things. You had the beginning of the underground, when there were bands that took things a little more seriously than previously. Like getting into what they were playing and writing songs, and the people that listened to it were into it, but now there's a younger generation that have moved up that don't particularly want to hear sophisticated stuff. They want to have a good time and Black Sabbath gives it to them. I think it's valid in that respect, in so far as there's a market for it, so it must be valid. (McGrath's comment in typing up the interview: Oh really?)

Rick: Any fears about the blues revival dying out in North America?

Kim: Yeah, well, the blues thing is going down rapidly. It's rapidly declined in England. There's still a lot of enthusiasts for it, but the enthusiasts tend to buy Black records instead of white records. And it's difficult, really, to get them to understand that white music can be as valid as Black music. Like, I still buy Paul Butterfield records. There are still guys around playing the blues, and there are still people digging it.

Rick: But now people know who B.B. King is. . .

Kim: Right, but there again he's not as big as he could be.