Well, I'm busy finishing off the album and putting it out there at the moment. There's two new tracks on it, along with a re-recording of all our hits. Mikey Craig from Culture Club is playing bass on one of the new tracks, John Themis, who plays with the Sugababes and George Michael, plays guitar on one of the tracks too and we've got former Ricky Martin percussionist, Gabriel, in the band. We've also recruited Chaz Da Bat, the Culture Club keyboard player, to be part of the band and he'll be taking on the role of producer and musical director as well. Jamiroquoi's trumpet player is in the band now as well. It's been a bit like picking the best players you can find to be in your football team. It's been great just calling up all the people I'd encountered in the past, telling them what I'm doing and then hopefully getting them involved. To be honest, I only really asked David James from the original line-up, but he's into management now. I think he's looking after Sinead O'Connor at the moment. I did speak to Trevor Jones, John Duprez as he's better known, but he flits between here and the States. He's writing the music for a new Monty Python thing at the moment. I do have to say, the new band does sound good; we've got a great group of musicians. Since we reformed, we've had a lot of interest from TV people too, so once we've completed the album we can start taking them up on it. There's no point going on TV just to say we've reformed. I'm hoping to do a lot more live work too, like the Schoolfields gig on Clapham Common last year. That was brilliant; no posing and posturing, just loads of people wanting to go mad and have a party!

It's latin, but a little bit more grown-up. It's Modern Romance grown-up, with less pop and more latin. Some of the notation is far more authentic, but we haven't taken anything away from its pop-ability. Otherwise, people may as well go and buy a Sergio Mendes album. We're still hoping to bridge that gap.

I've been playing music that I don't want to play. Doing sessions that just aren't me. I have worked with some great people as well, like Craig MacLaughlin, Angie Stone and I did some stuff on the Culture Club album. I also did a few gigs with international acts that want a ready-made band when they come to the country to gig. Bits of everything really!

Two flop records prompted it to be honest! [Laughs] The band was signed, prior to me joining. They were told that if the third didn't make it either that they were going to be dropped by the label. When I came along and first heard 'Everybody Salsa' I thought it was a bit corny, but that's because I was brought up on some serious avant guarde funk and jazz. Jazz and funk records don't repeat the same thing over and over, it's all about change. So it just felt a bit cheesy when I first heard the track. Of course though, that's the whole point of a pop record. When we were going around gigging, everyone was just going mad to that track, so we knew that had to be the one to release next.

Well, like any band, we'd found our formula and stuck to it. In fact, the first two flops were both new romantic tracks and that's where our name kinda came from. But that first track just bombed abysmally and so did the second one, even though it was stronger and actually became one of our best live tracks. So even though it was kinda by accident, we just decided to move on from the new romantic thing. It felt a bit cliched at first, but once we started to play live, with a top percussionist, it just gave it a bit more credibility. The backbone of the band was strengthened by the genuine salsa rhythms going on.

I haven't seen much of it, but I did catch up with Tony Hadley about three months ago. I went along to a gig and went backstage after to catch up with him and a few others. None of them knew about us reforming though, and if my mates don't know about us, what chance do we stand with the rest of the world! So we've really got to start pushing it now. Anyway, at that stage no one knew who was going to be on the programme. As soon as I found out he was on it, I just thought he's got to win it. He's one of the nicest blokes I've ever met. He's a bit like me; a North Londoner, mad Arsenal supporter, a really down-to-earth guy. When I heard him sing last, I said to him, 'I can't believe you've got better with age!'. There's that long note at the end of 'Cut A Long Story Short' and it's not that I didn't think he'd crack it, but he was so powerful and held it for so long, my jaw actually dropped!

They were actually. There were some down times, but it was an absolutely brilliant period. A time when everywhere you go, people want to buy you drinks and treat you like super hero, like Spiderman and Superman combined. Let's face it as a young single male, it would your ideal world. None of the rich people could buy the experience we had. The camaraderie of six or seven guys in a band going out together, it was a kind of fellowship. We were a really tight band and it was like a marriage, but nothing could touch it. I'd never get that again. You'd be very lucky to get it a second time. Priceless!