The band have at present a single 'Blinded By The Light' high in the charts, their album 'The Roaring Silence has just entered the top thirty album charts and they are midway through a British tour.

Tonight (September 22nd) the band have just completed the gig at Leicester's De Montfort Hall which included two encores, one being the old Manfred single ' Mighty Quinn'.  This must have seemed a total contrast to the earlier part of their day, as they had just driven in from London after recording their spot on TOTP. The audience loved the band and rightly so, as they produced a powerful and slick show, with excellent music lighting and even occasional comedy from starts to finish.

After the concert I went backstage and asked Manfred what he thought of the concert

"I thought it was good, it took me a little while to get into it, but I thought that the music was very good.  I don't think it's the best we've played but it's a long way from the worst, so I'm very happy."

During the '60's you were very successful in the pop world, what made you decide to change to rock?"  "Well I'd been into jazz before I got involved in pop music and when 1969 came I think it was justtime to give up.  I quit while we were still doing well.  We had a record in the Top Ten at the time and I just decided enough was enough.  If you try to play safe all the time I think you'll land up in the mud, and although I'm very cautious in everything I do this was one of those times when you just take a chance and obviously it was the right decision".

So you prefer to be in the rock world?

"Yes. I always felt a little bit of a misfit in the '60's, but I applied my brain to those kind of singles and there's still a part of me that is capable of doing that, although I don't do it much.  I yearned to do more than I was doing and it was disappointing to know that people viewed you as just a hit single maker, when I knew that the band was capable of much more."

Are you a very dedicated musician, or have you ever felt like giving up when things weren't going so well?

"I don't like the word dedicated because it sounds so posing and contrived. But 1 suppose that must be the truth because that's the only thing I've wanted to do. In some ways I'm a dedicated rock musician because I didn't want to do film scores which I was offered, and I didn't want to do TV commercials, which I actually did for a while. I also didn't want to produce for other people. I could do that too, because I produced for the Band, so I suppose I am dedicated to playing gigs. and being a live rock 'n 'roll musician, although I don't want to put any moral superiority on the word dedicated."

So you're still enjoying live gigs ?

"Oh definitely. It's the only thing I enjoy.  I don't like recording, although I think we are getting the albums right now. This band has always been good live and it was the albums we needed to work on. We thought we could rely on the live gigs but I realised a couple of years ago, that that wasn't true, but I still don't like  recording. I don't like being locked in a studio with its technological atmosphere around me. The studio is a place that is almost designed to prevent you from playing music with feeling and you always have to search for the inspirational moment, so I really enjoy playing live gigs, it's very important to me personally."

After five years of not playing festivals you recently did theReading Festival, why was this?

"Well until recently my attitude has been forget England, I'm not bothered, as the press and publicity here have virtually ignored us for a few years and everywhere else we were doing well, but now things have come right here, and I don't feel resentful. But it was strange, we were playing well.and going down a storm and weren't offered one festival in five years, in any position on the bill. Within theband my vote was against playing Reading Festival unless we played at a better time, as I thought, "Hell it doesn't matter', As it turned out it was good so I was proved wrong."

A while back you did a tour with Kiss, now being a straight musician does it annoy you that they need to use make-up and gimmicks rather than just the music?

"No not at all. I think if Kiss can be very imaginative, as they are with make-up and clothes and their stage act then the best of luck to them. Please don't think that because I am fairly straight, using just music and lights that I am remotely opposed to people like David Bowie, Kiss or Gary Glitter because I'm all in favour of people like this and I wish them all bloody good luck.  The main thing is that when you do something you do it well, and these people obviously do. In fact, I feel almost aggressive about the fact that the world is against the Bay City Rollers, it's full of people who are resentful that these guys are being successful. Why the hell shouldn't they be as this is what music is all about? I don't enjoy what they do, but that is no reason to knock them.  I almost dressed up in a Rollers outfit for TOTP but I thought that people might misunderstand."

Your current album is 'The Roaring Silence', are you happy with the end product"

"I'm satisfied that the essence of what we did was good, and it has a lot of good moments, although I wished I had had another three months to do it in, even though we did reject at least 25 minutes of music. If I'd had longer I would have thrown off some of the things on the album, and recorded something else.  I just feel, it's got the odd weakness that I could have corrected if I'd had a bit more time, but in the end you've got to stop. We had been going on for six months and I was going mad, I just had to stop sometime, but basically I think it's good, but it's not for me to judge."

'Blinded By The Light' is now a hit single do you not feel this may attract the wrong type of audience to your band?

"Well they weren't the wrong audience tonight, and it's been a hit single for 5 weeks now, Christ if they're not coming now when will they come? I'm delighted to see the audiences are into the album and they're the type we want."

Graham Neale