Climax Blues Band

George Glover on his band’s upcoming plans.

Best known for Couldn’t Get It Right, their Top 10 hit from 1976, Climax Blues Band have existed since 1968. Keyboard player George Glover sets the scene for their latest run of gigs, and a first studio album in 13 years.

The band are in the studio, making their first album without Colin Cooper, who died in 2008.

We’re finishing a five-track EP, which will be available in a seven-inch format. Its title is Hands Of Time. The full album is out next year, with an extensive tour.

Did you consider ending the band when co-founder Cooper passed on? Colin was everything to this band, and of course we had those thoughts. We took two and a half years to rest a bit and accept what had happened, and then we spent another twelve months seeking someone that could front the band and play saxophone. They’re like rockinghorse shit, so we expanded to a six-piece with one of each.

Graham [Dee] hasn’t got the same voice as Colin, but he fits really well. And Colin had made it plain before he died that he wanted the band to carry on.

You’ve been a member of CBB since 1981 but there are no originals left. Does that breed cynicism from some? It does. People say: “This isn’t the original band,” blah blah blah, but I’ve been in the band longer than any of the original members. Kevin [Morris] from Dr Feelgood, who took over that name from Lee Brilleaux, is a friend of mine, and we talk about it a lot. At the end of the day, we still play a lot of the old material.

You must still play Couldn’t Get It Right. And how about I Love You?

We do Couldn’t Get It Right, of course. We can do I Love You, but we don’t. It was sung by Derek [Holt, who left in 1990], but that doesn’t stop us from getting dozens of requests to play it at people’s weddings!

The website says that Climax still “plays the blues in a creative way”.

Are you perhaps acknowledging that others do not?

[Laughs] Can I just say: “No comment”? DL

An EP launch party takes place in Milton Keynes on August 25.