As the digital revolution spirals into the future King have been plugging away round the live circuit. Is this the way towards a right royal success?

King are living proof that some bands still do it the old fashioned way; that is, they don't make the video first, then the single, then prance about in a poncy London nightclub in front of several hundred of their very closest friends.

Chart success has been a while coming, but the band are convinced it's due very largely to their policy of committed live work. Their experience of live concerts meant that when they eventually entered the studio with producer Richard Burgess, they had definite ideas about the sound they wanted. For King, what happens on vinyl must happen on stage, so parity of sound was a vital ingredient.

"I like to experiment a lot," explains bassist Tony Hall. "My live sound is very raunchy, with a good 'growl' if you know what I mean. The studio sound is cleaner — I think the difference comes from a difference in playing style. When I'm in the studio, my playing is lighter, but when I'm on stage, with the adrenalin flowing, I get a much harder sound.

"Another sound variation obviously depends on equipment. I've got a Trace Elliott stack with a 4 x 10 and a 1 x 15 cab with an H250 head. I always play with the amp flat, which may sound incredible to some people, but I've found that with the guitar I use, which is a Music Man Sabre, the 'flat' sound is my sound, it gives me everything I need. I like a nice sound that bites, and that's the sound I get with the equipment. I don't use any effects at all, that's it."

What about in the studio?

"Very much the same there really. We're trying hard to create the same sound we play live on stage with, but with a more polished finish. We want to get away from electronic gadgetry, and get into Rock and Roll, just play it and record it."

Describing King as 'Rock and Roll' may seem a little odd, given Paul King's preference for somewhat sudden stage attire, and exotic body contortions, but underneath the immediate vocals, the root of the band's impressively punchy hard sound is Tony's fluid bass sound. So how hard is it for an experienced live musician to re-create the same atmosphere in the sterile studio atmosphere? Tony gives a large portion of the credit to the experience and skill of former Landscape drummer Richard Burgess who took care of the drumming chores on the King album as well as the production.

"He's great because he's a musician himself," Tony enthused. "He's so experienced, and we all listened to him. He taught me quite a few tricks with basses that I didn't know, although I've worked in studios before, but only on a demo level.

"For example, Richard showed me how to gaffa-tape the strings to get a dampened effect, and to use DI on certain tracks to bypass the stack and feed straight into the desk which gives a cleaner sound. He also showed me how to split the stack and put a microphone between, to get a fuller richer sound, little things like that which you need to have explained, and once you know them you can always experiment with them on future recording sessions. It's a big advantage to have a producer like that. In the studio, be becomes another member of the band, as well as sorting out ideas from the rest of the band."

Although he now concentrates on two basses, Tony has always been keen to try out as many different types and styles of bass as he can.

"I've tried hundreds! The ones I use now are the Music Man Sabre, and a WAL Custom; those are the two that I actually own. The Sabre I've had for about three years. It's just like a really comfy pair of shoes that you always want to wear. I like the sound because it's got a lot of bass, but not too much middle, which I find ideal, because you can always punch in the middle from the desk afterwards. The WAL is almost the opposite, it has plenty of middle, which makes it good to record with, but I do prefer the Music Man I think."

A fair description of the basses you do like to use what about the ones you weren't too keen on?

"I've never been very been on the Fender range, they tend to have one particular sound of their own which for me is a bit boring, although they are nice to record with. The new Status basses are really good. I must confess that when I bought the WAL, I did go over my budget — it was over £1,000 which was really more than I could afford at the time."

How many musicians have done that in their time, set their heart on an instrument and forked out the readies; never mind the price-tag, feel the tone! So why did Tony go for the WAL bass?

"Mainly because the people whose bass playing I admired were using them. I was listening to a lot of late 70's Roxy Music, and Gary Tibbs' bass playing was one style I really admired, and he had a WAL. I thought if he was getting that sound with a WAL, then so could I — it's an idea you get, you see or hear an instrument you like, and you have to have one.

"I do like a lot of other bass players as well, Tina Weymouth from Talking Heads is a great player, and the bassist in Chic, the list goes on. I'm not so much influenced by individual players as periods in time, like all the old Motown singles, because the bass is always very strong on them.

Finally Tony, will budding bassists look to your sound as an influence?

"When the set is going well we tend to push the tempo up a little bit. It's nice to have the choice of doing it ourselves, rather than turning up the varispeed on a drum machine"

"No, I like to experiment a lot with sounds, which is good because I don't like to become stylised. I wouldn't want people to look at me and say 'That's the Tony Hall bass sound.' I like to vary my style, and I hope people will think of me as a bassist who creates different styles."

Time to leave Tony to change for the night's gig and wander through the maze of hotel corridors in search of keyboard player Mick Roberts. I eventually located Mick and his charming wife Karen enjoying tea and biscuits and each other's company; a major tour does nothing to help maintain any kind of domestic sanity. No matter, a cup of tea with their last two biscuits, and we were ready to talk about King's musical ideas in general, and keyboard contributions in particular.

"I'm a pianist really, I don't really like the term 'keyboard player' when it's applied to me," Mick decided. Did he think there was too much technology attached to modern recording?

"Not really. Our producer Richard Burgess is very much into the New York style, you know, banks of keyboards, but he understands the way we like to work. All the keyboard parts on the album I actually played, there was no letting the computer do it all at the touch of a button, so it wasn't as frustrating as maybe it could have been.

"The whole point of King we reckon is being a live band. I think we'd all be pretty depressed at the thought of using loads of backing tapes, although there are bands that use them very well in their stage set. We tend to involve ourselves in a fair amount of improvisation on stage, the songs are never one hundred per cent the same every night, which gives a sense of freedom to experiment, which I appreciate."

What about the fans though; given that so many fans of chart music come to concerts expecting all the songs to sound like they do on the album.

"I think what it loses in the finer points of studio sound is made up for with atmosphere. You have to 'feel' an audience's responses very night and build the rapport with them. Sometimes, when the set is going well, we tend to push the tempo up a little bit. It's nice to have the choice of doing it ourselves, rather than turning up the varispeed on a drum machine."

Having talked over the studio sound of the album with Tony, did Mick think it was the sound the band were looking for?

"It perhaps hasn't quite the live feel we aimed at, but that's due in part to us being new to the studio as a band, and also the use of drum machines on some sections which may have inhibited the flow occasionally."

That old studio inhibition raising its head again.

"A little bit, yea. We were very lucky to have Richard as a producer, he uses an SSL desk which gives that nice clean sound, and it also helps to make for fairly rapid recording which helps to keep the instant feel and freshness in the record."

With a chart single and album, and more recording sessions to come, it won't be long before Mick and the rest of the band are being courted by various manufacturers eager to press their sales pitch. Faced with that happy situation, what will be on the Roberts' shopping list?

"What I'd really like is a good piano!" said Mick, and Karen nodded in vigorous agreement. "The one we have is a good one, it's an upright which was given to us by a school. I'd like a good name piano like a Steinway or maybe a Yamaha C3, they're very nice. The thing is with pianos, it's no use going by names, you have to actually play them and find out which particular action suits you as a player. I just like to play pianos, there's one in the tea room downstairs, and I've been dying to have a go on that!"

From here, conversation turned to early years as a musician, and I recounted the way in which my initial talent was nearly strangled by over-zealous parents forcing practise on me. Karen smiled ruefully and admitted that she'd suffered a similar fate, so how did Mick escape?

"Well, my father was a church organist, and I was always very keen, watching him play and being fascinated with all the hands and feet actions. I was eager to learn piano, but of course, I went through the usual problems of having to stay in and practise scales while my mates were out playing football. It is necessary to get that solid grounding if you're to make any progress, and I wasn't forced to practise, it was more a case of firm guidance!"

"We want to get away from electronic gadgetry, and get into Rock and Roll, just play it and record it"

Back upstairs again, this time to see if Jim 'Jackal' Lansberry (lead guitar and hair) had completed his ablutions and was ready for a chat about guitars, videos, and visuals. He had, and he was, once we'd watched the five seconds of the Love And Pride video that the BBC showed on Top Of The Pops so it could congratulate itself on bringing us the viewers 'much more music' and all that! But for Jim too, it's live work that's kept him interested.

"I like to experiment with sound, we all do. No two nights are the same, especially being in different halls, each with its own sound. I'm just getting used to using effects on stage like Boss pedals and so on. I change them round from gig to gig to prevent the sound from getting stale."

Like many guitarists, Jim is particular about his monitor sound, which may not always agree with the ambience of the venue, but he's found an interesting solution.

"That's right, I've got two JC's with me, and on the next tour, I'm going to link them both up, and Graham our sound man can use one set for his front-of-house sound, which is quite clean, and I can set the other for the sound I like to hear up on stage, which is slightly dirtier."

If Tony avoids using effects for his bass, Jim tends to compensate, using enough effects for the whole band!

"I use the SCC 700 Control Centre which enables me to patch in seven different Boss effects through a foot control, and that gives me 32 different sounds which I can bring in instantly in any combination. I also use a Roland Heavy Metal distortion pedal quite a lot as well, heavily gated because I get quite a lot of noise off it. I use a flanger as well because I like to get a heavy sound, then gate it and punch it out into the audience."

So how did the heavy lead sound fit under Richard Burgess' production?

"Very well. Richard is very technically minded, but he's seen us live quite a lot, so he knows the sort of sound we make, and what we wanted. Richard's also been spending time in Canada producing straight-ahead Heavy Rock bands, and he's been very successful at it as well, so I just turn up my Strat full and tell him that's the sound I like and he gets it on the studio speakers, which can be quite difficult in fact. Over the last few sessions we did, he got the sound just right, and it was monstrous!"

Why a Strat, Jim?

"I use a Strat because it has a clear sound, and I think you need to hear things clearly on stage, even if it's distorted, it needs a clear sound. To me, Les Paul's are a bit muddy with the humbuckers, I don't get on very well with them live."

Ever met a guitarist who's only got one guitar? No, neither have I!

"I used a Gibson 335 on Love And Pride which was about a year ago now. Beautiful necks on those guitars, and I like the Jazzy sound they give, a lot of people use them for that. I used mine with a Rockman that Richard brought over from America and it sounded really great, it gives you distortion that's controllable at any level.

"I still prefer the Strat live because I can throw it around quite a lot — the Gibson's body is too big for that, although it's fine for studio work, and effects and so on."

All this talk of distorted guitars made me wonder just how Jim came to fit his sound into the overall sound of King.

"I think King had a sound from Day One really because we grew up together, but we listened to different music. I enjoyed a lot of Rock guitarists, I used to love that dry up-front sound that Paul Kossof got on those Free albums, and I used to listen to Chuck Berry as well. Paul and Tony were into Soul and Reggae and Micky was classically trained. Put all that together and it gets interesting, it's a hybrid and it clicks as soon as we get into a studio. It's not a sound you can categorise, it must have been hard for people to get used to the idea of screaming guitar over Motown poppy bass, but our fans have got used to us because we've played live so much.

"I think it was important for people to see us first, rather than get into us with videos and all that. They can understand what we're about — danceability with a hard edge."

That just about says it really. That night, King went on stage at Liverpool and showed what four years of solid live experience does for a band. The Liverpool fans went beserk, and anyone who didn't have a copy of Steps in Time would no doubt be hammering on their record shop counter the next morning demanding one in a bag right away. That is still the essence of what it's all about. With boots on.