Alan: There's been a couple of personnel changes in Gunhill recently, why have these changes happened and how has it affected the band?

John: The reason for the changes is because Rik [Robyns], the guitarist, slowly got to like flying and he decided that was what he wanted to do, more than music. Consequently he handed in his notice last July and said that he needed to pass some flying exams and he needed more time to achieve it. We were playing too often and he couldn't find the time to concentrate on his flying. We tried bribery and everything but we couldn't change his mind, and it literally was bribery, I wasn't quite down on my knees but I was on the verge of grovelling for a while. Eventually we had to accept that flying was what he really wanted to do so we auditioned for a new guitarist, we must have gone through about 30 or 40 until we narrowed it down to three. Unfortunately, one of the guys who was really good turned out to be a bit of a pain in the ass, he wasn't the kind of guy you'd like to have next to you if things got rough. He was possibly the closest to Rik of the three guitarists, but we decided to go for Brian Bennett, the nicest one of the three who'd been around the block a few times and, he's very very good. He's adapted his gear to suit Gunhill and he's turned out to be really good. With regards to Mike Raxworthy, he and I started the band together but he just couldn't keep up musically, he was also under pressure from his outside work in commercial art. Consequently the band decided that we would become a four piece and it's working really well. When we first decided that Mike should go I really did want to speak to him face to face but it just didn't work out like that because he was going off on holiday and I finished up having to tell him over the phone, I hated every minute of that but it had to be done. In a way I think he was a bit relieved and to me it's similar to what Mick Box once told me about when Heep decided to get back together in the early 80's, he needed guys around him who he knew he could rely on, not only as musicians but also as decent guys. Mike Raxworthy is a really nice guy and he did a lot of stuff for the band, but it just wasn't happening for him musically and he just couldn't keep up. We were finding at rehearsals we were getting bogged down with having to show him things that he really should have been picking up. I have to say at the same time that the band, since Mick has gone, have become a lot tighter and without being big headed or anything, because it happens to most bands who play in pubs, when it comes to the end of the night and people have had a few pints, they want to hear a bit more. We'll go through our usual encore numbers but if it carries on after that we throw it open to requests and ask the audience what they would like to hear. It's become such a good thing now because we can actually do that, Brian, the guitarists, has been around quite a bit and played all various kinds of music and there's nothing that he can't put together in a couple of minutes and play.

Alan: How has it affected the band losing the two members who played keyboards?

John: It hasn't affected us a lot, the numbers in the set that were keyboard based are still there. We do "Floseanna" as you well know and Brian astounded me by taking over the complete solo on guitar. I thought we wouldn't be able to do it again but it works well. Songs like "Every little bit hurts" which we used to do with keyboards is now done with an acoustic guitar so it's a nice change. We've always done "Eleanor Rigby" and when we left it out after Mick left, people would say, "why haven't you done Eleanor Rigby tonight?". Before he went the keyboards had become his responsibility and because the keyboard brings the song in, a cock up stood out like a sore thumb. It got to the stage where I was thinking, is Mick having a good night or a bad night, and if he was having a bad night we didn't do Eleanor Rigby because he just couldn't do it. When you can't rely on the guy next to you and you've got to leave out numbers because of it, then it becomes hard work and that's not the idea of the whole thing. We've now adapted it to suit us as a four piece and it goes down well and is still one of our best numbers.

Alan: With all that you've said and bearing in mind that Gunhill have always put themselves forward as a good time rock’n’roll, fun type band, does this mean that now you're becoming musically more serious?

John: Oh yeah, when we say a good time band, we always put it over as being a good time band, we try to involve the audience as much as possible. Over the past three to four weeks, since Brian has really settled down in the band, he's become more loose in his playing. When he joined us he'd been playing in dance bands for a while where he was tied down to a particular way of playing, it's taken quite a while for him to adapt to the fact that he is the only solo player in Gunhill, but the fun element is still there. We've been playing "Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City" for a good while and now the audience has practically taken over the singing, I can almost sit back towards the end of the song and just add my little improvised bits in between. We always have a laugh and we still do, when we first started out and Mick was playing the keyboards with one finger it was a joke, people who came to see us regularly would watch him and it became a standing joke, over a period of time people get sick of that, they want to take the band more seriously and we want to be taken seriously, I think that's the way you have to be but we still have a laugh and take the micky out of each other but it had got to be a little bit hectic so we try to take it a bit more serious now. Comparisons are made by the people who see us on a regular basis as to whether Brian or Rik is the better guitarist, you'll always get that at whatever level but nobody has made any remarks that they miss Mick in the band. Neil is such a good bass player, he anchors the whole thing down at the back and Lloyd has woken up to the fact that he and Neil can play much better without having to worry that the keyboards will fluff up whatever we're playing. I'm very happy about it, it's working well.

Alan: Are there any new songs in the set?

John: Yeah, surprisingly enough, Lloyd has become an acoustic fanatic and he's latched on to Melissa Etheridge, I wasn't aware of some of her stuff but he brought along an album of things she's done acoustically and we've fitted them into the set as amplified versions which work really well. We're still trying to find numbers that people might have heard before and do them the Gunhill way.

Alan: Last time we spoke, you mentioned that Gunhill were working on some new material, is that on-going and is Brian involved in it?

John: Yes, we've been working over the last couple of weeks on some ideas but we're doing it very slowly and taking our time because you can't just rush into stuff just for the sake of creating our own material. It has to be the right stuff and it has to sound good. There's no rush to get band compositions into the set, our main concern is to get the band appreciated by a wider audience by moving out of the area. It's all very well playing to the local punters who see you week in and week out but we want to play in different areas. As far as our own compositions go, we record them as demos and work on them before they are put into the set.

Alan: Do you hope to use this material for another band released tape or is it your intention to use it to get a recording deal?

John: To be quite honest with you, the idea of going for a record deal at the present time is not uppermost in my mind, there are so many bands who go for record deals and they don't make it. That to me isn't the right idea, these bands go round the circuit with their own material and they finish up not playing because people don't want to hear it. We're not into the kind of thing where we have to play our own stuff to create an audience, the idea is to go out and play as Gunhill and get people to come along and see us knowing that they will have a good night. If we can introduce our own songs slowly but surely into the set and people say "that was a good song, who was that by?" and we tell them it's one of our own, then it's nice. You can't just do that overnight or it can have the complete opposite effect.

Alan: How are things going with "Lucifer’s Friend" at the moment?

John: The "Sumo Grip" album has been picked up by a Florida based company called "PTR Music" and they are to release it in America. They're going to change the cover because they don't feel that it identifies with the American market, I don't have a problem with that so they are looking at possibly releasing it during May. It will be coming out under my name instead of Lucifer’s Friend, I was a bit concerned about that but it's what PTR Music wanted so I had a word with the guys in the band about it and they don't have a problem with it, as far as they're concerned the main thing is that it gets released. There is talk about a few gigs in the States at some point but that could be just talk, I'm treating the whole thing that if it happens, great, if it doesn't, it doesn't, but it would be interesting if it did.

Alex Gitlin / Vladimir Milovidov

(c) 1997