L.A Guns, a band perhaps best remembered for hits such as 'Sex Action', 'Rip N' Tear' and 'Ballad of Jayne' are back in the UK for the first time in around a decade. Pigeonholed as just another eighties 'hair band' by many, L.A.Guns were a darker and more intelligent entity than fellow Sunset Strippers Motley Crue, Poison and Ratt.

However, as the grunge scene of the early nineties kicked in they suffered a similar fate to many other hard rock bands of the time. Namely, banishment from the mainstream, and with that, media ridicule and ignorance.

After releasing their fourth studio album 'Vicious Circle' in 1994, singer Phil Lewis quit the band to pursue other musical interests following friction caused by musical differences.

Regardless of this, founder member Tracii Guns (guitar) and drummer Steve Riley continued with three other singers, including ex Love/Hate front man Jizzy Pearl before reuniting with Lewis in 1999 for a greatest hits album. With latest recruit, bassist Muddy completing the current line-up L.A Guns are back (not that they ever went away).

With album sales of around six million, a new album ('Man in the Moon') and tour to promote it, I talked to Steve Riley on the opening night of the UK tour about the past, present and future of L.A.Guns.

Itıs been ten years since L.A.Guns last toured the UK with Skid Row and Love/Hate. Why has it taken so long to come back?

"We hit the nineties you know, and when we hit the nineties a lot of stuff stopped. We broke up for a while and before we got Phil back we had three different tours booked with other singers that filled in for him. We cancelled all three of them. Thatıs why even the bombing at the Trade Centre wasnıt going to stop us coming over this time. Nothing could get in the way of this. But you know what, Iım glad we didnıt come over without Phil."

With many of your contemporaries either calling it a day or fading into obscurity in the face of what has become fashionable in the last ten years, how have you managed to keep your heads above water?

"Again, the nineties were so hard on all of us, I mean it was like taboo to say you even liked anything from the eighties. When Phil wasnıt with me and Tracii from 1996-1999 we did the three albums without him and because of business reasons we called it L.A.Guns. You know for the bigger money and ability to tour."

The grunge scene of the early nineties did a lot of harm to a lot of the so called eighties hair bands. Many changed their musical style and image dramatically. Tell me how this affected L.A.Guns?

"The first album we did after Phil left, 'American Hardcore', might have actually sounded as if we were going after a trend but we weren't. We were always into that heavy stuff but it wasnıt L.A.Guns so we never brought it to the table. It just wasnıt our style. It was just something that we really wanted to get out of our systems. But no we did not follow any trends at all. We never wanted to do a grunge album, rap rock or anything like that and I think that the new album, 'Man In The Moon', sounds like an L.A.Guns album."

Has it been a struggle with limited media interest?

"Yes, it has been very limited. The nineties were worse but right now itıs getting a little better. But a lot of people fail to realise how things go in music. We were so over exposed. The eighties bands owned MTV, more than even the rap rock bands now. The eighties were totally dominant and all over the place. Radio and TV. But I still feel fortunate that we have a name and we can play a number of recognisable songs live and right now it's a live situation for most of us because we get so little airplay. It's ridiculous to put $100,000 into a video and have it played once, late at night. But it seems to happen with bands from each era."

After 1995's 'Vicious Circle' album, which you didn't personally appear on, Phil quit. Do you think that this was a result of differences of opinion in how the band should move forward musically?

"Yeah. We had a falling out and I was out of the band from 1992-1995. But even though that was a good album there was no way it was going to get any air play, but it was very diverse and I think it was because the band was already drifting apart at that point. People were bringing in their different ideas and they were not being worked on as a group as on previous records."

Following this, everyone was doing their own separate thing then until Cleopatra Records approached you with an offer. Can you explain the story here?

"During the nineties, when somebody approached any one of us bands with money to do a greatest hits album or to re-record 'Cocked and Loaded' like we did, of course you're going to be foolish not to take that money. But that was the catalyst for the reunion. I called Mick (Cripps, guitar), Kelly (Nickels, bass) and Phil, told them about it and when we got together it was so much fun. We were all pursuing different projects but we all knew that L.A.Guns was our strength and that we had just needed a break. After the album, we went back to doing our own things, but it was only a matter of time before we called each other and decided to do this full time."

On the current album and tour Kelly has been replaced by Muddy, and Mick, although not on tour, appeared on the album. Where are they?

"Mick was actually only on a couple of songs on the album. Kelly, voluntarily didn't want to do it any more. When we started up touring again, he was very unhappy. He was not into the managing of his days, he didnıt know what to do with his time and was very uncomfortable. Mick stayed with us for a while but soon followed Kelly. They just donıt like touring and right now it's a live situation for all of us bands. Weıve got to get out there and play. We canıt sit back anymore and count album sales. Weıre only going to move a limited number of albums so we're going to be making our livelihood by bringing the music to the people."

When you decided to record a brand new album was there a lot of record industry interest?

"No there wasn't. Weıre dealing with independents. Weıre on Eagle Rock/Spitfire at the moment which isn't one of the majors although they are one of the better independents. They had a plan, they knew what they wanted to do they were going to work a single and give us tour support. The Cleopatra thing was strictly money. We knew they only needed to move 10,000 units before moving onto their next project. There was no plan other than that with them, so we started looking around but we realised that the majors were not interested."

In the States, Portrait Records (a division of Columbia Records Group) have signed a number of acts such as Ratt. Was that ever an option?

"John Kalodner (Portrait A&R man) saw us open for Ratt and was like "Guys, I love you" and we were aware of his work with Aerosmith. He was just getting the Portrait thing going where he was going to take this big infusion of money and work on all the eighties bands he loved. I sat down and talked with Steven Pearcy of Ratt. They were just finishing off their album with Kalodner and I asked him what it was like. Pearcy told me that he and Warren De Martini had written a song - and these guys wrote all the hits for Ratt, so they know how to write songs...this song was so dear to them, and even if it wasnıt a single they wanted it on the album. He said that they had sat around a table with Kalodner and listened to the song and K just said "No, I don't like it" and I said "But you guys love this song" and he just told me that it was part of the deal. So we were like, wow that really sucks. Kalodner came down to the rehearsal studio and was saying you guys are great, stay the way you are, do this, do that and we were asked to sign with them and we actually turned them down. We turned them down because we could see that there was nothing going on. There was no fall out with K, we just decided to do it on our own."

How did you manage to counter your previous musical differences during the recording of 'Man In The Moon?'

"We had all got a lot out of our systems during our time apart. Tracii and I really wanted to do the heavy album and Phil did his own solo thing. Sort of like Oasis type music. Neither were L.A.Guns though and we knew it. And it's almost a blessing that we all managed to get all those things out of our systems. And now weıre enjoying writing and playing together so much."

I notice that you have added a couple of dates to the UK tour. Does this reflect a greater public interest than originally anticipated?

"Ticket sales are going really well on this tour, and again, album sales are just okay. I don't think album sales for anyone from the eighties are going to be as astronomical as they were before. But if you came out of the eighties and you are fortunate enough to have a name and eight or nine recognisable songs, you've got something. We're fortunate to be able to tour whenever we want but we have a lot of friends in LA that can't." How do you rate the new album alongside your early recordings? Some of the tracks on 'Man In The Moon' could have come from 'Cocked and Loaded'?

'That's right. We tried to do an album where we could play the whole thing live and we did. We did a five week tour of the States before we went out with Faster Pussycat and it was all the Hard Rock Cafes and we played only the new album. At the end we played 'Ballad of Jayne' and 'Rip N Tear' just for the crowd. But we feel we have done an L.A.Guns album. Me and Tracii are big Zeppelin freaks and I think that comes out in the new material as well."

How easy or difficult is it choosing a set list these days with the extensive back catalogue of material you have?

'You'll see tonight that there are at least eight songs that we have to do. 'Electric Gypsy', 'Ballad of Jayne' and there are about four or five others that have to be done. But we understand that and wonıt fight it. The remainder of the set is up for grabs though and we'll fool around with that so we can still have fun."

Do you regularly rotate the songs and change the set or is it pretty much the same songs every night?

"The beginning of the set is the same every night where we're doing 'No Mercy', 'Sex Action', 'Man In The Moon' and 'Kiss My Love Goodbye', then Tracii calls songs out and we just go for it."

Do you still feel that you have a lot to offer musically?

"We do, but it's unfortunate that we can't bring it to the masses like we were able to do before. The music is really coming from our hearts and we love writing together. Nothing is forced at all and we refuse to have any writers come in and help us because we feel that we are competent writers and weıve already written stuff that went over well. We feel great right now being together. Tracii, Phil and I feel so good being together. We wish Kelly and Mick were with us, but we understand that they don't want to do it anymore, but Muddy's great.He sings well and plays great bass."

Finally, what are your plans following the completion of this leg of the tour? Are we going to see another album and tour?

"Absolutely. We're going to finish this tour and go back and maybe do one last US swing with two other bands. Maybe with Dokken and Warrant. We'll try to play up to Christmas and then take off and do another album between then and the springtime and then the process will continue with another tour. But we're due to come back here and all of Europe. We're talking with Lizzy Borden right now with a plan for them to come over with us and we're looking at coming back at the end of January/beginning of February which will be great.