Alternative World Fanzine, March 23, 2007, page twenty-three

THE LIVE REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS

Q: You guys have had a great year, winning the poll in Midnight Special Blues Radio - what's it been like?  After 30 years as a band it must be gratifying.

A: It's incredible! We've been playing the Blues for over 30 years now and suddenly we're #1! Peter, it's been surprising, gratifying and totally exciting. The award is officially "Midnight Special Blues Radio's Artist of the Year" for 2006.

The first internet radio station we sent "Can You Dig It!" to was Midnight Special Blues Radio in Paris with Paul Bondarovski. He picked a few songs to play and Wow! we have #1 hits with "Workin' On Love" and "Yer' Bad Behind" and "Luck Runs Out". He played more songs and we sent him our earlier CD's "The Blues Ain't Pretty" and "No Place to Fade". All year long, we've had 6 to 8 songs in the top 20 of his daily chart. The listeners are voting these songs up the charts, no corporate push is involved. That's how we became Midnight Special's Artist of the Year for 2006.

We also sent Herm at Electric Blues Radio "Can You Dig It!" and "I Like It Like That" hit #1 - then "Hard Enuff" and currently "Feel So Good". DJ Smilestir at Blue Icewater Radio plays 12 of the 14 songs in a weekly rotation format. Then Bluebird Radio over in England started playing our songs. It is gratifying to get this worldwide appreciation for our efforts. I've always felt if we were to succeed it was going to involve setting up a team of industry people who believed in us and I feel that's what's happening now.

We started Blue Plate Special back in college in 1968. Playing the Blues exclusively made us totally unique back then. We have had what David Lettermen used to call "brushes with greatness" from time to time, but it always seemed to come at a point where our contacts were going out of business. Bill Trout, a Chicago mover and shaker, found us one night at Beavers, on State Street in Chicago in 1971. He tried to help us, but Mercury Records and his organization were moving to the west coast and we were lost in the shuffle. Two 45 records were cut, but no real support.

The three of us from the original band, Harry Binford on guitar, Gary Maier on drums, and myself on vocals, bass and keyboards, continued on, playing our own gigs as well as providing our