Here is the interview that DEREK WADESON did with MUNGO drummer SIMON BAKER after a gig, around '93.

WHAT DID YOU DO BEFORE MUNGO?

The first band of any real note happened to be with LES CALVERT. It was a band called TURBO. We used to tour up and down the country, had record company interest but never quite made it. Les and I struck up a friendship, and after TURBO split, he got busy with MUNGO and I went on to join LARRY MILLER. We made records, appeared at major festivals and biker type bashes. There's been a few others but TURBO was the first of any note, then LARRY MILLER. I then got involved with the IAN CAMPBELL BLUES BAND and I've been playing with them for the last six years. There's a few other bits and pieces going on, but now obviously, MUNGO takes precedence, it really does, just by the nature of how much it works. Anyway, the CAMPBELL'S BLUES BAND kept me busy. I did some nice things with them and then, I got involved with heavy metal. I'd always been a hard rock, R'n B drummer, and leaned towards bands like that. Over the next three years, I then joined a band called THE BITCHES BREW and spent three years playing some very heavy, complex stuff, which was quite stretching musically. Unfortunately, I got terribly, terribly insular and thought, I've got to get out and join a good working band, a good solid act.

IS THAT WHEN MUNGO CAME ALONG?

Yeah! About two months later, Les gave me a call and said, "Simon, can you do a gig tomorrow night"? I said sure, who with? "MUNGO"! Les brought round a load of records, I had a listen, and that was the gig at the Cartoon Club, Croydon.

WAS THAT YOUR DEBUT?

Yeah! Straight in, no rehearsal, just playing from memory and what I'd heard the night before. It's been very good, and certainly going from a band like the BITCHES BREW, which were so complex, into something as straight and down the line as MUNGO...it's taken me a year to start and work out what was going on and I'm starting to, I hope, come out of this musical shell that I've been surrounded by, and start being a bit more showy perhaps, and a bit more into the party. Less of the worry about how good you are. It's really good! The abroad trips are so much fun and it's nice to get away and do something different. That's not to say that doing stuff in England is bad, but as you know, that's where it really happens for us.

IT'S A DIFFERENT CONCEPTION OVER THERE TO 70's TYPE BANDS LIKE MUNGO?

That's right! I've had to sit back and take stock of what it's all about. Why are you playing in a band? What's it all about? Unfortunately, bands like THE BITCHES BREW have lost sight of why they are doing what they are doing. It's really irrelevant how, sort of clever you can be. If you can't entertain people, you've got it cracked...and that's where Ray's at.

MUNGO ARE JUST WAITING FOR THAT ACCEPTANCE AGAIN. THE PROBLEM FOR RAY THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER IS THAT IT'S STILL BEING REGARDED AS A BIT OF A JOKE, BUT WHEN SERIOUS PEOPLE COME AND SEE THE BAND, THEY HAVE A TOTALLY DIFFERENT CONCEPTION HAVING HEARD THEM?

When 'Summertime' came out, I was 12 years old. Irrespective of whether you regard MUNGO as a one hit wonder, which I didn't really think they were, because they had other hits, my favourite being 'ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT'. That is my favourite MUNGO record. I was learning to play then, and it had that really quite nice, swinging, natty piece of drumming. It really stuck in my brain. I never really regarded them as the novelty act that so many other people do, but it came as a big shock to actually start doing it. But it was one of those formative sounds that you heard at a particular time, when you are at a particular age, when you start to take notice of what is going on around you. 'ALRIGHT NOW' was another record that had the same sort of emotive feel to it. 'Summertime' was a very, very important record. I think it was for a lot of other people too, but they lose sight of it over here. It's in the past, it's gone.

THAT'S WERE THE ACCEPTANCE IN GERMANY COMES IN, AND ABROAD IN GENERAL. WE WOULD LAUGH AND SAY IT'S BEHIND THE TIMES

Well it is behind the times, but in another sense, they are not so caught up in stigma, in pre-conceived ideas of what a show is, of what it's gonna be. They're more prepared to go out and enjoy themselves and that's why so many bands go over there, because it's so much fun. All the oldie bands working the circuit love it. They keep going back for more, and playing in front of an audience that is ready to party, as opposed to trying to motivate through sheer hard slog is obviously better both ways. I'm not running England down, it's just different.

Well it is, you don't really know what circuit for MUNGO to go on. On the cabaret circuit, you end up playing to an audience, it doesn't really matter who is on stage, it's just a band to get up and dance to at the end of the night. You cant play to the college audience because of the reputation and the stigma attached to it, but that would be better.

It would be! It would be a hell of a lot better. I also think that the way the band has to work in this country, and abroad where we usually go on a bill with other bands is, I think, restrictive for MUNGO. What I would personally like to see for MUNGO is a fairly complex stage set up where you have a percussion set, so you could create more of the original type of sounds for 'IN THE SUMMERTIME' and 'LADY ROSE', and those sort of things. For me, being a drummer, I would have a percussion set on the side of the stage consisting of, snare drum, temple blocks, cow bells and various little things to bash and hit and play in a percussive fashion, rather than play the full kit all the time, because you can't do it. You can't get another complete set up on stage. There isn't the time to do it, there isn't the flexibility to do it. Going abroad, logistically you can't do it because you can't take the stuff with you. You'd end up taking huge great flight cases and all sorts of bits and pieces. So for MUNGO to really flower again, they would need to have a hit again, and maybe start calling the tune a little bit. If MUNGO JERRY had an enormous hit in Europe, you could start taking it out, probably as it should be taken out. Do the electro stuff, fine, but do the acoustic stuff as well.