then its possible that more things would be done about it.
JB Yes, we've all got to do our little bit, haven't we?
SA Yeah, we can all do our little bit but it's all very well trying to switch your light bulbs off and things, use green products but if people in industry and stuff aren't doing anything about it, then doing your bit, really - its a losing battle.
JB Absolutely. On to drummers now. Simon Phillips plays drums on the album but, on the video for "Alone", it's Martin Chambers from The Pretenders. Why not Simon?
SA Well, that's a very simple one. The reason that Simon didn't do the video was that he was actually in America at the time. Both Tony and the guy who directed the video, Roger Pomphrey, knew Martin well and they just asked him to come along. He always does well on videos and when they asked him just to be in the video and he was happy to do it, it turned out well.
JB Great. Might he tour with you?
SA I don't think so, no, I think he's got his own project he's working on.
JB Oh, right. So, do you know who's going to be on drums during the tour?
SA No, I've not got a clue.
JB I see. Ian has given me a list of maybes but....
SA Yeah, well that's about the stage that we're at at the moment.
JB Right. Presumably you audition the drummers or is it left to
SA Yes, we do, yes.
JB Have we seen the last of Chris Bell?
SA As far as Chris is concerned, we don't know what may happen. We get on really very well with him. I don't know exactly what we're doing just now. I really like him a lot, a hell of a lot. He's really great fun to go on the road with - we've possibly not heard the last of him - I like him too much for that.
JB Ian has given me the track listing for the album but could you give us an idea as to where you get your inspiration for the lyrics?
SA Lyrics come from everywhere. I'm quite an avid reader, I'll read absolutely anything - books, magazines and newspapers.
JB And ideas grow from a phrase or something you may read?
SA Yeah, sometimes some things come from that and some things come from my own personal experiences - things I've lived through and felt strongly about or things I've spoken to other people about. Its the sort of thing I'm always on the look out for. I try to keep my mind open all the time for little phrases or ideas that I think may be interesting and I think sometimes you're
not particularly I mean, you start out writing a song and you're not too sure what the subject
matter is, you just find phrases and words that feel good and that sound quite strong and then gradually the song grows out of that.
JB So, anything can act as the seed for a song?
SA Yeah, like a little seed. For example, the song "We're Not In Kansas" just came from a line in the film The Wizard Of Oz. I tried to draw an analogy between that and kinda Dorothy being in Oz and not quite understanding where she was and someone looking about them in a contemporary environment that they aren't used to and suddenly realising that they don't know what's going on around them at all.
JB Right. Whilst recording "The Buffalo Skinners", did you ever have 'one of those days' when nothing would go right and all you could do was throw your hands up in the air and call it a day
until tomorrow? If so, did you just throw your hands up in the air or throw something else?
SA Well, about having one of those days. We had a whole ten of those days! We spent a week and a half actually recording the backing tracks for the album no, no, a week doing the backing tracks, and then we'd been over-dubbing for a week when we realised that one of the machines was running fast! All the stuff we'd over-dubbed was actually out of tune so, we had to go back
