Well, we're here in Bristol at the moment, on the second night of the tour and it's a beautiful day. The opening night went well, although we were still feeling our way a bit, ironing out the running order and finale. But it all went off really well, so we're looking forward to tonight and the rest of the dates. We're largely touring the UK, but will be nipping over to Austria and Germany as well at some point.

Oh yes, it's been our full-time job for nearly 40 years! We tour throughout the year, we don't stop. Ten days is about as much time that we get off at one time. I guess you could say I'm not the typical family man.

Well we really do get from the incredibly young to the fast approaching death, there are no rules to who comes along. We obviously still have that nucleus of people that followed us years and years ago too, but if you were to work out the average of our followers it would be around 45. But we do have teenagers and babes in arms coming along with their families to gigs.

The last serious project we took on was in 1989. We recorded an album in Germany, called 'Hungry Hearts'. We had to fly over on our days off to record it, but it was great to get the chance to marry new technology with our old harmonies and sound. That worked out pretty well. There was also a period in 1981 when we recorded a couple of albums for Sire Records, which is a very serious New York label. The label's run by Seymoour Stein, the guy that signed up Madonna, as well as a lot of a label mates, like The Flaming Groovies, Talking Heads, The Ramones and Rezillos. We produced a couple of great albums that were really taken very seriously by the media, but unfortunately weren't taken seriously by the DJs, so we didn't get any hits. We had acres and acres of double page-spreads in publications like Melody Maker and NME and things like that. The Sire period was a great time for us. No hits but a lot of street cred!

Oh yeah, there's nothing like a hit! I do have a future and a pension to think of! Although we do make more money now than we ever did in the days when we were making real hit records. The business has changed, money has changed and I think people put a greater value on artists now. We work constantly and for good money all the time. But what I miss about those days is the status, I suppose, and that people know who you are. There's nothing like a little ego boost, you can't knock a bit of fame!

Well yeah, we really did think it was all going to take off again then. I can still listen to 'Love's Melodies' and 'Play For Today' and really enjoy them, it was just right. We spent hours and hours on the guitar sounds alone. The producer, Pat Moran, and John McNally, who's still in the band now, spent a solid day at a time working in the studio. John's a real workaholic and a real studio person and Pat Moran was a very dedicated producer. So, after we'd finished all the rhythm tracks, John and Pat would be there right into the early hours of the morning doing all the dubbing and just making sure that everything was absolutely perfect. I think those albums will stand up forever.

Well, not that late! Although I wasn't in the very first line-up, I had known them for a long time before and joined them in 1964, almost exactly a year after they'd had their first hit 'Sweets For My Sweet'. When I joined them it really was their pinnacle year; they were at their best as I came along. I had known them since 1962, as we used to hang out at The Star Club together. I was with Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers then and we'd released about seven singles at that time, none of them successful, but we were a serious recording band. The Searchers had only just stopped being a semi-pro band from Liverpool and hadn't made any recordings at all. In fact, none of them had really until The Beatles opened the way. I followed their career when they came to London; going to their shows and parties. When it came to Tony leaving to have a solo career, they knew me, so they came to me.

It was really exhilarating, although I did turn it down at first. The Rebel Rousers were just being signed over to Brian Epstein and I was very conscience-striken about rocking the boat. I didn't know how I'd go about telling the others. When Chris Curtis first asked me, we were in a Spanish restaurant in London. I kinda 'umm' and 'err' about it, but finally said no. Then, about three or four weeks later. I was walking down a street with Moss Groves, one of our sax players, and I mentioned it to him. He couldn't believe I'd turned it down and told me to ring them back straight away to ask for the job and check whether they needed a sax player! Well they didn't want a sax player, but I'm so glad I took the job after all. It's been the best job in the world.

It really was, even though we've been through bad periods. At the time, I really didn't think it was going to be a lifetime job. Like most people, you think you'll get a few years out of pop, but it's such a transient thing that your star will fade and eventually you'll have to get a proper job. We did go through a very bad period in 1969 to about 1971, when our chart hits had stopped and we'd started doing the cabaret clubs. We were working incredibly hard and getting a pittance for it. There were times when we were doing three clubs a night. A good learning experience, but no other rewards. That was the time though when I thought I'd give it up. When the cabaret clubs started to close down though, instead of all our work disappearing, all these one-nighters started coming out of the woodwork. Suddenly, for three nights work a week, we were getting paid more than we had been for seven nights before. Life became so much more bearable and our career took a bit of an upturn.

I think it's down to a lot of hard work. We do try to look at ourselves very objectively, but I think the songs are very long-lasting too. They're good, simple, classic pop tunes with a beginning, middle and an end. If things are easy to remember, they get sung throughout the years. Also, we were part of a life-changing period, a new reference point for pop as The Beatles emerged. All modern pop refers back to that point or back further to rock and roll, so it was a pretty important time. We also learned, during our cabaret years, that we couldn't just do a routine of songs, but that we had to entertain an audience too. We had to learn how to engage with the audience, how to pace the show and how to bring the show down to a pinpoint and pull it up again. We can run the show like clockwork now, so that from two thirds in we build the atmosphere so much that we cannot fail to get a good response at the end of it.

We've had some that haven't reacted at all, there aren't many of them though. Sometimes you just get booked for one of those functions you can't predict and we still get sweats over them. It tips you a bit, but you just have to learn from it.

It was fabulous, I just wished I'd been mature enough to make more of it. I was a real shrinking violet in those days and just couldn't believe how lucky I was. Unlike most other people who look back and say they wouldn't change a thing, I would do everything different.

Oh yeah, lots of times! I remember the first time I met them, I was in Hamburg with The Rebel Rousers and on December 31st in 1962, I went to The Star Club to see the end of their set. They were great! It was the same night that the Hamburg tapes were recorded in fact. They were really something special. I went into the dressing room after the show and introduced myself to Lennon and wished him luck with 'Love Me Do' that was just being released at the time. He said to me that he'd been speaking to people in the club that night about our performance there and he said, 'Oh yeah Frank, it seems next to Cliff, you're the most popular member of the band. But I can't think why, your harmonies are f***ing ridiculous!' I just stood there completely gobsmacked. I had never heard anyone talk that way before, I'd always been taught not to be controversial. I wished him well again and went on my way. We did meet them a few times after that, but I kinda kept my distance as I was always a bit scared of them. I still see Paul from time to time, and he has always been really polite.

What a pain in the arse that was. It happened in 1985, when Mike Pender planned to remove himself from the band, completely without our knowledge. We found out by accident, he had his plan well underway before we heard anything about it. It was such a shock! John and I were very worried about our careers, but dug our heels in and got a replacement straight away and Spencer James is still with us now. The whole thing worked out so brilliantly and we went into one of our best periods of good quality work after that. Of course though, Mike went off and wanted to use the name. Legally it was such a grey area as we had always been partners. We didn't want to go through an expensive court case, so we had a series of meetings to sort it out civilly and inexpensively. We agreed on certain restrictions and we thought it would work out ok. It turned into a bit of a mess, so we had no option other than to take it to court. Fortunately we won, but still had to go back to court again when he signed a contract as The Searchers. I think he's dumped the band now though. We still have to police it, but it's not such a pain now. I just thought it was unethical. If you choose to leave a band for a solo career, that's fine, but you can't still purport to be that band, while the rest of them are still out there performing. I can be controlled and calm about it now, but there was a lot of bitterness. It was extremely unpleasant for a while.

God, my taste is pretty weird, but John and Spencer are reasonably up to date. I stopped really keeping up with music a long time ago. I still like listening to yuppie rock, like Brian Ferry and Van Morrison. I love theatre as well though. I mean Steven Sondheim is amazing, as are Gershwin and Porter too. One of my real heroes died not long ago in fact, Lonny Donegan was incredibly important to me. I saw one of his shows a couple of years ago and it was just one of the best evenings I've ever had in my life. He was such a great part of my youth, but he was even better than I remembered him in his early days.

Yeah, there's two or three of them in fact. The main high point was when we played at Wembley Stadium with Cliff Richard in front of 80,000. We'll never get a chance like that again. There were other events too though, like the Royal Variety Show in 1981. There was an incredible atmosphere at that. I know people think of it as a bit naff and old establishment, but it was a big deal for me. I'm neither right nor left, but meeting the Queen is something that doesn't happen to most people. Another key moment was in the early days, in 1964, when we went to America for a week at The Brooklyn Fox. The bill was the best thing about it, we were alongside Dusty Springfield, Milly, Marvin Gaye, The Ronettes, The Contours, The Supremes, The Dovelles and The Shangri Las, just to name a few of them. All our hereos on one bill.

I'm a London lad and I still love all the showbiz parties and going out. I eat at The Ivy once a week and have my own table there. I just enjoy the glamour of it. Yeah, I'm very much a London theatre-goer and diner. I also enjoy hanging out at my house, I'm very proud of it and now I have one of the members of Steps living next door, Claire. I just gave them a dinner invitation actually, along with Christopher Biggins and Mark Knopfler's manager, Ed Picknell.