It's been three and a half years since Redd Kross released their Third Eye LP but it seems like only yesterday. Now LYNNE ALDRIDGE can finally take it off the turntable because their new record, Phaseshifter, is out in September. So tie your scarves around your wrists and get ready to sing along to the next set of anthems: 'Visionary', 'Lady In The Front Row' and 'Monolith'. This is how they came to be where they are today.

Who said Glam was dead? Somewhere along the line the McDonald brothers must have overheard someone saying just that, as they're out to prove otherwise - with a vengeance.

The hotel bar is just the right location for a Redd Kross interview - tacky tourist touches fight it out with more 'tasteful' touches, such as the grand piano in the corner. Eventually the band become frustrated by the Michael Bolton tape that is playing in the bar and restaraunt area and having located the tape (I later discover that Brian and Eddie had checked its location earlier with plans to substitute the usual muzak with tapes of their own) 'deal with it'. Gerry, who was in fact the most riled by the background music then takes her place at the piano to entertain one and all with everything from Georgie Girl to Led Zeppelin's 'No Quarter'. A hat is improvised from a clean ashtray and a small amount of cash is collected.

And life goes on... (You Know It Ain't Easy - 'The Six Teens' by the Sweet 1974).

Somehow I don't think it's ten year olds who are holding 'Who's best, Suede or Blur' arguments, it's the ten year olds of the mid 70s, who used to start fights if anyone said anything detrimental about Roy Wood's hair. Jeff and Steve would love to have been there.

Jeff: "Glam meant nothing in the States. When we first got hold of those first Sweet and Slade records, no one else was interested. It was our very own music. Looking back, Glam Rock was the ultimate teen music - snappy singles, packaged to be outrageous, slightly camp, but hardly a danger to society. Most of the acts had been around in the 60s, and they were creating their own fantasy version of the era just before - the mid-late 50s-having been too young to be active at that time."

Hold it - so they were around eight to fourteen years old during the era they paid tribute to, started playing bands about five years or so after that era had ended and reached their musical or commercial peak ten to fifteen years after the said golden age. Sounds familiar?

Jeff: "Well, we are in a way paying tribute to those first glam rock records. Switchblade Sister was written deliberately as such. It's a complete throwaway really - we wanted to re-write 'Metal Guru'. I mean, we all wish Marc Bolan was still around today, but as he isn't, we had to write the kind of song he would have written at his peak.

Were you expecting the reaction to the single cover?

Jeff: "Sort of, but it doesn't worry me. I've yet to find a woman who was offended by it. It's only been men who've been upset by the sleeve. The sight of breasts does not alwavs lead a man to think of sex. it can also make him think of his mother. That seems to be what we touched on. Sure, female friends have pointed out that the design is really bad taste, but they've all seemed to be amused by how uncomfortable the picture could make a man feel. I have total respect and empathy for women and if just one woman had said 'No, you can't use that,' I'd have scrapped the sleeve."

Any clues on the identity of the model?

"No idea - I'd love to know. The slides came from a friend. He found a whole box at a garage sale. I was talking to him on the phone as he looked through them - he'd bought them without really checking what he'd got. Suddenly he shouted 'Omigod, we've hit the jackpot!' and described the pictures we eventually used. I'd like to meet her as much as anyone else - find out about the pictures - when they were taken and why!"

What have you been doing for the past year?

Jeff: "Relaxing as much as possible. We spent far too much of 1992 touring. (Probably true - drummer Brian claimed that he'd spent more time talking to me than he had to his mother!) We went round the world - Japan, Australia as well as here, and we were hardly at home. So we know we had to take some time out before permanent damage was done.

Luckily, recording was not a problem as the studio's in my house. So all I had to do was crawl out of bed strap on a guitar and go - how cool can you get?"

We've had fun recording this album. It's almost been like taping rehearsals, without the arguments. We were able to use ideas we'd had for a while...l'm really interested in stereo separation - the way on the early stereo records you could have guitars on one side, drums and vocals on the other.

(This is especially true of Beatle records - try playing Sgt Pepper through one speaker at a time.)

We discuss great split stereo records at length.

Jeff: "I've always wanted to try that, so on , Saragon we went ahead with the experiment. It has, totally freaked some people, but it's been almost like a secret code to split-stereo bluffs, they understand irony of the production."

It has been said that Americans don't understand do you feel misunderstood?

"Often. I guess I can come across as sarcastic - my tone of voice and my sense of humour. I'm not saying I need to be taken seriously, but I don't enjoy being written off in seconds. On the whole, I think audiences over here understand us better. There is such a difference in attitudes between here and America - you're not as naive and you enjoy the idea that things are not what they seem - a little grubbiness below the surface glitter. Maybe that explains everything!"

Redd Kross - great instant pop. Just add handclaps.