No zeros here! Seriously, I have been involved in hard rock and heavy metal since 1982, when I was rock label manager at Pinnacle records - the UK's leading independent distributor. At that time, I was in charge of labels like Neat, Music For Nations and Roadrunner. From there, I handled rock promotions with Phonogram records, working with Kiss, Bon Jovi, Metallica, Def Leppard and many, many more. After that, I took over rock promotions with East West records, handling Dream Theater, Rush, Kings X...the list goes on. It 1996 I co-founded Zoom Club records, but that ended badly in 2002. In 2003, with my awesome colleague Adrian Clay - who I'd known for twenty years - I formed Majestic Rock. Adrian's background is sales, and there's nobody better ANYWHERE at what he does. We make a great team, and long may it last!

We keep a tight ship. In reality, there's only four of us, but we work very closely with all of our distributors across the world, and they take up the slack, effectively acting like a fifth member of staff. We probably need a couple more people on board, but as I'm sure Adrian would happily agree, we're both total control freaks!

That's quite right! As well as this, I've freelanced as a writer- Kerrang!, Metal Forces fanzine, Music `Week ( an industry magazine) and briefly Sounds - done a bit of DJ work (even sat in for Tommy Vance on the Friday Rock Show once!) and tour managed bands (specifically the NWOBHM 20th anniversary event in Tokyo in august 1999 with Praying Mantis, Tank, Samson (RIP) and Trespass. Also managed a couple of bands, most notably UK cock rockers Naughty Naughty, who got a lot of press in the UK for all the wrong reasons and toured with Badlands on their last UK trip.

A lot to answer there. OK, firstly, I think the scene is fairly healthy in the more underground sense - band's like Masterplan, Silent Force, Firewind & Dragonland are keeping that whole epic hard rock thing alive, though they probably wouldn't like me referring to them as underground - but facts are facts. Sadly, what passes as rock has been hijacked by the media and is more about the fashionable body piercing and the length of your shorts - we live in the sound byte age! In that respect, things have never been worse and they'll never get better. We are living in the last days of the record industry as any kind of relevant force. This doesn't worry me at all, because we are the underground, a niche that will always survive but never sell huge amounts of records.

As for MP3 and file sharing, no problem at all. I firmly believe that rock fans would always rather own the CD, art work and all. Let's just remember that the guy who downloads a CD rather than buy it, was NEVER gonna buy that CD in the first place, so you haven't lost a sale, have you?

I'd love to manufacture vinyl but, for all the talk, there really doesn't seem to be the interest out there. Pity.

Sadly - but maybe not sadly, really - melodic rock has really had its day in the sunshine. In any case, for it to ever be the force it once was, major labels would need to get involved...and we really don't want that, trust me. I've been there, and I know.

There is a responsibility on a label like us to do the things that aren’t really gonna sell bucket loads but need to be done anyway. I’ve always felt this way – remember the classic Marcus album that was re-released through Zoom Club? One of the greatest hard rock albums ever, but it sold really badly. It is still one of the most important things I’ve been involved with in 22 years in the business. Sometimes, it’s not about the money. It’s about what feels right…though, of course, Adrian might not agree with me there!

If we're talking solely about Majestic Rock - which, of course, we should be! - then the best in sales terms would have to be the Tytan 'Rough Justice' release, Waysted's 'Save Your Prayers' and the Grand Slam 'Twilight Last Gleaming' CD. Worst - oh, I dunno...the Surgin' 'Electric Nights' and 'Jack Ponti presents...' discs have some quality issues but, considering their archival worth, I'd still stand by them.

Most satisfying? No doubts at all - John Sloman's 'Dark Matter'. Sadly, we aren't working with John anymore - don't ask! - but this record`remains one of the finest things I've ever been involved with ever. A real masterpiece, it's just a pity more people aren't aware of this record. I know Adrian feels the same way about this.

Why do you say 'with reluctance'? We're more than happy to sign the right act, and we're perfectly capable of working those acts within our admittedly meagre budget - just ask M.ILL.ION. I see the label definitely gravitating more towards signing acts - we have two or three deals in the pipeline that are really gonna surprise people that I would be stupid to talk too much about here. There will always be a home for re-issue on Majestic Rock, 'cos that's where our heart is. Obviously, though, there's a finite amount of worthy re-issues out there to be had. Survival will ultimately mean more new acts, I think. But the right new acts, acts that fit our criteria.

Yes, I’m based in Tokyo. We have released both Magnum’s ‘Brand New Morning’ and Lionsheart’s ‘Abyss’ over here, and we plan to release the new Legs Diamond album in Japan in the early part of 2005.

Well, we have an previously unreleased album from Glenn Hughes recorded with Robin George in 1991 set for release in, possibly, February 2005. Glenn has been very supportive, and we have promised to release it after his new album 'Soul Mover' comes out in January. Again, there are lots of things I could tell you...but not yet. Hope you're cool with that.

Yes, it's been pretty gratifying. We made the decision very early on to be totally transparent. Anybody can contact us and tell us how they feel, and I regularly go onto message boards and forums and leave myself open to whatever people wanna throw at me. That's hard, I can tell you! As for plans.....

Well, it's better than working in a factory (apologies here to anyone who does work in a factory, but you know what I mean!) Seriously, I wouldn't have it any other way. Both Adrian and I have turned the love of our lives (other than our wives and kids, of course!) into our job of work. Living the dream, man...

Kinrick! (M.I : Not too sure about this – I think it means kingdom – or sth. I’m pretty sure there’s a whisky by that name…or something.)