Want to hear it straight from the Horse's Mouth? Ask your question here.

Issue #90, Part 1 - Sep 15, 2008

Well, I heard it was pretty bad in the UK this summer, but we had a spiffer! We didn't have many ninety-degree days (my dread) and mostly Hawaiian nights. Best summer I can remember; is the climate getting warmer or is it changing?

Paul Kennett: The good news is we do have acoustic CD's; they have been heard (not by me yet) and I'm told there's some really good stuff on there. We'll be deciding on how to proceed with them over the next few months.

Craig: Yeah, Mick's a classy player, but we might not get on.

Todd wants a MTH T-shirt. Well, it's been a while - we'll make some enquiries.

John McMillan: 'Are you going to record on YEP ROC with your next record?' Haven't a clue; good people. 'When are you and Tracie going to record something together?' When it naturally happens.

Mark F: 'The site for 'Old Records Never Die' lists collaborations with members of Frank Zappa's band in some of your solo work. Who did you play with and on what projects?' I didn't know I did!! Maybe they're talking about Aynsley Dunbar who was the drummer on AAAB. Met Frank - went to his house with Keith Moon; lovely man.

Gary Gick: Would I let a politico use my music? Yes, if I believed he was legit. No if I was undecided.

Bill Innes: Picasso was the name I gave him out of respect.

Bucks Burnett: Too much like hard work.

Tony Jay bumped into Michael Eavis/Glastonbury who asked him to consider you for next year - he said 'If he gets MTH to reform they can play.' He thinks like a promoter.

Vosmo: Yeah, we did change after 'Brain Capers'. You can see it on 'Saturday Gigs' with Ronno in the band before the split. I guess we were learning how to get better, plus we badly needed some commercial success to capitalize on the live situation - which was extremely healthy. We worked with David and Mick and learned all the Visconti stuff that they had learned. David had a softer ear than we did, thus 'Dudes' is a little 'quiet' but we found our way onto the 'Mott' album.

Paul Dakin: Well, Steve Winwood's always been a remarkable talent. We opened for Traffic on numerous occasions. He was only a kid then, but he could do anything; a great natural talent. Very nice chap, too.

Celtic Rocks: Sorry, lads - got nothing on this.

Jeffrey Stanke: Oh, yes; we've got bears.

Don Hirsch: 'What, if anything, did you find difficult about setting up residence in the U.S.? Food, traffic etc?' Well, the bacon's crap here! Everything else is fine except the eternal health business. They go on about it too much. TV hypes everything too much for me, but it's a gorgeous country if you can avoid the bushes.

Shawn Jones: ATYD is on Guitar Hero Xbox360. Did you know? Yes, but that's not us.

Stono says Rod Argent gave MTH and me a great boost in an article. 'Could have been one of the greatest band ever - but ended too soon.' How lovely! Played with them a couple of years ago on the West Coast. They still have it.

Dan Sebald just 'got' 'Real or Imaginary'! that it! No drum roll intro - no! Subtlety, my man, and respect. A little quiet song that I hope doesn't get away.

Chris Davies says in the middle of SH CD I look like Inspector Clousseau! It was bloody freezing that day.

Martin Taylor remembers Redcar Jazz Club. I do too; great place to play. Discovered Newcastle Brown there. Mixed blessing.

Brent Coursey: The original demo for AAAB was with Ronno, Jaco, Bobby Columby and me. I still have a super 8 somewhere. Doubt if it will ever see the light of day. Pity; it's good from what I remember.

Phil Monaghan: I can't really comment on this. I don't know the full facts.

Tom McGarry: 'Who linked 'American Pie' into 'Golden Age'? Off the top of my head it was either me, or Pete Watts, or both of us. 'What feel has the new stuff got?' More mid-range spreads. It's different again. Everyone's different.

Rob Mend: No problem.

Liz Krinsky: Go with it!

Bucks Burnett says you guys should stop complaining that I'm not 'bigger'. Bucks thinks I'm big enough (so do I in my tiny way!). Bucks says, if you want me bigger - buy two CD's instead of one (I'm all for that!) or burn two or three tracks and try to get your friends interested. 'Or do something.' Alright!

Peter Jorday: 'Were you knackered after the February tour?' Not one whit. 'Do you think you've mellowed?' Musically - somewhat; personally - a bit. My relationship with a band is that I like to be part of it - but I like my own way. Andy York's in a totally different area - and when we're in Andy's area he takes over and I'm just one of the band. I take care of the songs and he takes care of the music and we both muck in on the in between bits. The Rant Band are comprised of responsible and accomplished musicians in their own right, so it's all positive and everybody contributes. Some ideas get used - some don't. It's all for the record. MTH was more difficult because here you had five guys with five opinions and we were all equal - that was harder.

Kelly Wallace: 'I'm sure the reason 'Guitar Hero' didn't use MTH's version of 'ATYD' is someone has a gorilla grip on that kind of thing when it comes to MTH. I don't know if it's Angel Air/Sony etc, or who, but when Dixie put a few videos of MTH on youtube they were removed due to copyright infringement and he was thrown off youtube. When someone printed up MTH T-shirts due to all of us pleading to get one - he was ordered not to make any more. It seems every other band is on youtube, Guitar Hero and T-shirts - no problem - but mess with MTH and the copyright infringement police are at your door. You would think ads and exposure would be a good thing.' NOT ME.

Phyl: Yeah, Wiggy (Graham Worley) use to play with the Homelanders and sends me stuff all the time. Sorry to hear about B.T. - wasted many happy hours there.

Matt Nojonen: 'Just finished a book about Clear Channel - 'Right of the Dial: the Rise of Clear Channel and the fall of commercial radio' - very informative. A weak FCC, greed and arrogance created this mess. The author is not optimistic about radio ever recovering. The money making model is firmly in place and competition from other media has made huge in roads among new generations. What's your take?' Don't get me started. This started in the 80's with corporate record companies. Radio was supported by labels then - but some genius said at a corporate meeting that instead of giving bands 32 spots before they go into a market and 32 spots when they leave (spots being plugs for gigs/albums) Let's try 16! What a great idea. The 16 became 8 and the 8 became 4 etc. Radio - looking to boost its (declining) revenue found plenty of takers for their ad space - but these people weren't music people and they had to employ more people to tell the radio stations what to play. Out went 'area' music and in came national pap - and the less and more homogenized the better. It's been downhill ever since. DJ's are laborers and Program Directors have nothing to do with the music played. Great DJs fled to satellite radio. Sure, there are still some good DJs out there and the odd station may be a little looser, but they are commercial. Give the people what they want - same as TV, art or anything else that makes money. Control is the big issue. Corporations cannot rest until they have total control - and then they fight to keep it - or someone else is going to take over. All this is done for the 'shareholders'. And pigs fly. This is a quick simplification to illustrate how 'controlled' you all are. You're only supposed to know what they want you to know. It's cheaper and more profitable.

Amy: 'What is an A.P.? You mention you don't do them?' I don't know what an A.P. is.

Peejay: Did you see Bad Company? No. Is the next album acoustic? No. What about re-working MTH stuff? Why? 'Oops, don't ever do a reunion. It will ruin your rep as a solo artist (my opinion), but if there were a lot of josh - well!!!' Reputations don't mean much to me. I've had several.

Patrick: I was a bass player with Freddie (Fingers) Lee before Mott the Hoople.

Opossum: 'Would you listen and critique some songs for a fee?' Bit busy at the moment but I'm not sure I could do that anyway. I do what I do - you do what you do - who's to say what's right and what isn't?

Peter Jordan: Actually, we had a hell of a time with that song. It just wouldn't hang right. Ronno salvaged that one ('So Excited')

Tom McGary: 'Have you heard Jack Petruzzelli's work on Teddy Thompson's album? Sounds great to me.' Andy and I love Jack; he's the new one.

Keith Nickless: 'Rick Rubin has worked with artists such as Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond and Glenn Campbell - doing new albums with them. Most of the songs are cover versions. Would you consider this?' Definitely - different and fun and he's great.

Ryan Roman: Sorry, mate. Can't do this.

Bryan: It's for real and authorized (and rather good, actually) buy it! [Ed. Note: this refers to the 'Behind The Shades' CD]

Stay tuned for Part 2 ...