Interview conducted by Martin "Jet" Celmins during March, 2001.

MC:	Can you please tell us a bit about your upcoming CD? I hear Jack and Ginger are both involved.	Dick Heckstall-Smith and John Mayall
DH-S:	I wish Ginger was but he can't do it because he had an accident a few months ago with a number of horses owned by him and the result is that he can't play for more than five or ten minutes at the moment. I hope he will be well later but that's the reason he's not on the album.
MC:	But Jack?
DH-S:	Jack certainly is, oh yeah he was the first thing we did.
MC:	And what's the working title?
DH-S:	It's working title is, I don't think that's gonna be changed, I think it will stay; "Blues & Beyond". And there's a lot of suggestions for the subtitle. The American market would probably fall for something like "The Godfather Of British Blues" (laughing). The concept with godfather is so American but.....ok .....alright.
MC:	There you go. And the background to how it came together. Wha'´s the record company?
DH-S:	Blue Stone. A vigorous, pushing, independent company in America which Pete has done all the dealings with through the years. And I think they're great. Terrific. They're a medium sized company with lot of energy. And a good access to distribution. We're very optimistic so we're hoping to not get lost.

MC:	And other stellar names are Mick Taylor for sure, Peter Green obviously and John Mayall.
DH-S:	Oh and Paul Jones. Clem Clempson is present on almost every track cos he's my mate from Colosseum from way back. And we've got the most astounding new singer and guitar player - Rab McCullough from Northern Ireland. He's so ridiculously good, so good you die. I promise you a whole routine of heart attacks when you hear him! He's something else.
MC:	And the release date?
DH-S:	Well, we were aiming for end of April/early May, but I think due to the politics of touring and promoting the album it's not be that quick. It'll be probably out in June.
MC:	An European tour basically?
DH-S:	There will be an European tour and I'm desperate to do some stuff in America. Really want to do that. That band is gonna be fantastic.
MC:	The name of the band members.....
DH-S:	OK. Well, I´ll start from the bottom. The bass is David Hadley. The drummer is on all but one track, Gary Husband. On one track it's Jon Hiseman. Keyboards is, (when there are keyboards, mostly the album is designed not to use keyboards) Dave Moore. The ideal thing for me is to have two guitar players playing. And Rab being the singer and also guitar player - wild, wild guitar player. His voice and guitar playing is so..... dirty is the word. If and when I go on tour it will be those. It'll be David and Gary and the two guitar players, Clem and Rab.
MC:	Both of them?
DH-S:	Oh yeah, absolutely. And me. That's the size about it really.
MC:	What do you think about "The Kettle" sample featured on Fat Boy Slim's recent CD?
DH-S:	Well, I love to hear it (laugh). What's the CD called? If I knew the name of the album I go out and buy it. But I'm more than delighted of course. That sort of the previous millennium. You know that one was done in 1969 for Christ sake.
MC:	So you're flattered?
DH-S:	Yeah, I'm well pleased. Because I mean, I have to say the thing about it is that it does not have a saxophone. I did not write it for a saxophone. You couldn't use a saxophone on it. I wrote that number entirely for drums, bass, and guitar and a singer - a singing guitar player. That was what I wrote it for. I did not want to play the saxophone. I was a writer. And that was my first sort of serious attempt, my first entry into composition. Cos I do that quite a lot. I like to compose music that I'm not gonna play on. Cos I can hear things in my head that I can't do on my saxophone.
MC:	Did Graham ever play the organ when in the Blues Incorporated or the Johnny Burch Octet?
DH-S:	Yes, whenever he played. Well, that's not quite true. Graham was a multi instrumentalist and some of the gigs we did, especially the Johnny Burch Octet, Graham had no opportunity to play the organ because John Burch was the only keyboard player. And the Octet was definitely a jazz set up. Graham played organ with Blues Incorporated, and as I think it says in my book, in the end of 1962, the early part of 1963 the Blues Incorporated gigs always featured a short, between 15-25 minutes, organ trio set. Graham playing organ and singing with Jack and Ginger. That was part of the set up in the gigs whole the way through. I have a great visual memory of that little group on stage downstairs at the Flamingo 2 o'clock in the morning.
MC:	When did you become aware of John McLaughlin?
DH-S:	The very first time I heard him was when I started doing gigs at the Flamingo in Wardour Street. He was with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames.
MC:	And your impression of him at the time?
DH-S:	Well I mean, the kid was 18. And I'm coming down the stairs into this venue which was absolutely packed with black American servicemen. You wouldn't find a white there. They were there because of what the music was - Georgie and the Blue Flames. And one of the part of the Blue Flames was the guitar player and the guitar player was - I mean it astounds me how people those days didn't know how good John was. It was as somebody had to tell him - it was absurd. First time I walked down the stairs there and I heard this going on - this guitar stuff John was playing those days when he 18 - was absolutely lifted by the boots and it would turn you into some another creature straight away. For me that happened every time from that second. First time I heard him onwards I new John was the best guitar player in the world. I knew that from the first time I heard him. It was something about John that was utterly unique. I knew that first time I heard him and I was amazed people didn't know.
MC:	Am I right in saying that although McLaughlin was not a member of the Johnny Burch Octet, he occasionally sat in with the group when they were on the same bill as the Graham Bond Quartet?
DH-S:	Am not aware of that. I don't think there were any guitar players that did that. If they were, they was on Octet gigs that I didn't make because I was doing something else.
MC:	At the time McLauglin played at the Flamingo did he sit in with either Alexis´ band or Bond's trio?
DH-S:	To my recollection no. I think he only ever played with the Blue Flames until Jack and Ginger asked him to join them in the Graham Bond Trio.
MC:	The Graham Bond Quartet with John McLaughlin on board regularly backed Duffy Power. Were the Quartet still involved with Power at the time you joined?
DH-S:	I'm vague about that. I really don't know. I certainly remember Duffy Power in the Flamingo, but there's a memory of Duffy Power and not a memory of the make up of the band.
MC:	In January 1965 the GBO went on a package tour with Chuck Berry. Any memories about that?
DH-S:	I certainly remember the Chuck Berry tour. I do have a memory of a gig in Glasgow where I found myself on stage announcing myself, don't know how that came about because I never used to talk, but I remember announcing to the audience in this big auditorium that I was gonna play two saxophones simultaneously. Or it could be announcing Graham playing alto and organ simultaneously. But I can remember saying "simultaneously" to the audience. thinking this was a bit revolutionary thing to do.

MC:	Did The GBO bring the mighty Mellotron on the road, or was it only used in a recording context?	Graham Bond at the Mellotron
DH-S:	Only used in a studio context because it went out of tune whole bloody time. It was also very big.
MC:	I've heard Phil Seaman and Red Reece helped out just after Ginger Baker left the Graham Bond Organisation. Were there others as well?
DH-S:	I´m not convinced that Phil did. Red Reece did once or twice. I think it's unlikely that there were any performance given by the Graham Bond Organisation after Ginger left that did not have Hiseman on drums.
MC:	As a lot of sax players also doubled with flute I wonder if you ever have given it a try?
DH-S:	No, don't like flute. Doesn't work, the flute doesn't like me. I've used it if I could, but I can't.