For a few months now, in a hush hush campaign, copies of Midlands rock supergroup Black Country Communion’s second album have been circulating in the music business and around key players in the media. Ian Harvey talks to frontman Glenn Hughes.

'2' by Black Country Communion

The idea of the pre-release campaign is to build up a strong word of mouth for the 11-track album, called simply ‘2’ before it is released on June 13.

And the buzz is good. Very good.

It is an album which Cannock-born lead singer and bassist Glenn Hughes is rightly proud, a step up from their highly acclaimed debut album, a bolder, more inventive, more “widescreen” statement of classic rock intent.

And astonishingly it comes just nine months after their debut album was released and fewer than six months after their proper full debut concert at a packed Wolverhampton Civic Hall last December.

“I think this album is deep,” enthuses Hughes, sitting in his luxurious London hotel suite.

“What you hear on this album is a finely tuned machine . . . and that’s from a band that’s only done two shows.”

Black Country Communion features Hughes, formerly of Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Trapeze, Dudley-born Jason Bonham, son of Led Zeppelin drummer John, American guitar virtuoso Joe Bonamassa and former Dream Theater keyboard player Derek Sherinian.

Hughes explains how plans for the second album were put in place even before their debut was released.

Glenn Hughes

“Our producer Kevin Shirley came to me after I played at the High Voltage Festival last year and said to me and Joe I want you guys to go and write a new album to record in January.

“I don’t really write that much on the road, so I decided I would take three months off tour and I came in with 12 or 13 songs. My writing partner Joe didn’t come in with a lot of material because he normally writes it with me in my studio, but Joe spent Hogmany with his girlfriend Sandy Thom in Scotland and when we finally got to meet the day before the studio we had no time to write.

“So the glorious thing about this record for me as a writer is I got to really flex my muscles on this one. The backbone of the album is a Glenn Hughes musical record – for rock. And as you know I’ve switched gears now from the funk stuff to rockster again.”

Although it’s like asking someone which is their favourite child, I ask if Hughes can pick out any particular tracks on ‘2’ of which he is most proud.

“I can say every one of them,” he replies without a pause. “But special moments for me are Faithless, the first song I wrote (“’My lack of faith has no shame and is reckless’ . . . where the hell did come from?” he laughs).

“You know me, how much faith I have in God, and how much love and spirituality I have for people –  but listen to the lyrics on this album, there’s so much darkness on this album because of the stuff that I’m digging up from the 80s.

“Cold is about grief about people dying. The Outsider – I’ve always been an outsider. This album is a darker album, and let’s face it, I ain’t singing about puppies on this record. I’m singing about life on life’s terms – and rock fans want to hear some dark stuff.

Joe Bonamassa

“The biggest success I will ever have – and I’m talking spiritually now – even if BCC become the biggest band in the world, is my recovery from drugs. But I am a messenger, that’s the messenger part of it. I’ve come back from that dark, dark place and here I am fronting Britain’s new biggest rock band.”

Two of the songs on the album, The Battle For Hadrian’s Wall and Save Me have a real Led Zeppelin vibe, in the case of the latter that’s not entirely surprising as it’s based on a riff that Bonham came up with after he sat in for his late father on drums at the Led Zep reunion concert in  2007.

And then there’s Smokestack Woman, a song built on a monstrous Hughes-penned guitar riff, which makes this writer wonder if it’s based on any real-life Black Country girls from Hughes’ shall we say “interesting” past.

“No,” he says, bursting out laughing. “I’d love to tell you a fib but it’s not.”

He explains how the song came about: “Every Friday night I drive out to the movies in LA, myself and a friend, and I take a Dictaphone and if I’m in the movie and I feel a song coming on I go out into the bathroom, into the lobby and sing whatever.

“And I started singing this “Smokestack woman” (he breaks into a falsetto voice)  and I went . . . ‘Is that too tongue in cheek because it’s, like, Black Country?’

“I said wait a minute, this is something that the Stones or AC/DC would have done years ago, let’s just embrace the whole Black Country thing, writing the song about the woman from the Black Country. “

We get round to talking about that debut concert at the Civic on December 29, 2010.

Jason Bonham

“It was a real hairs on the back of the neck moment,” says Hughes, “Joe -  and Joe plays in the UK all of the time – said he’d never had a reception like that.

“And this is the beauty of Joe. He’s a really nice guy and he was so happy for Jason and me knowing how important the Civic Hall is to me and Jason – especially to me because I’ve been playing it forever. You couldn’t have scripted it, better than that, could you?”

So we can look forward to seeing Black Country Communion at the Civic again?

“Oh God! Yeah! Hell! Absolutely . . . you’re kidding me.

“Everybody wants us to come back, like, now but we are playing mostly in the north. We deliberately stayed out of the Black Country for the next event. I know that everybody would love another Christmas show from us but we’ll have to see.

“Our main focus now, as I said to Joe, a few times this year, is we have to invest in to Black Country Communion. I need this band to be viable in today’s market and you’d think so because we’re putting so much effort into it.”

Before a string of dates in the north, Wales and Scotland, Hughes will bring the rest of Black Country Communion along to the second High Voltage festival in London’s Victoria Park on Sunday, July 24.

Tony Iommi and Glenn Hughes at High Voltage 2010

Hughes’ appearance there last year was singing with Heaven & Hell in a tribute performance to that band’s late singer Ronnie James Dio, alongside band members Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, founder members of the mighty Black Sabbath.

Just moments before our chat,  Hughes had been interviewed by a video crew  from High Voltage itself.

“They asked me what it was like to play there. I said I’m not going to answer that because it was sad,” he says.

“I’d got two dour Brummies either side of me, Tony and Geezer,” – he delivers their names in a fabulous, morose Birmingham accent.

“It was sad because Ronnie was the icon for our fans but he was our friend. He was our brother. It’s daunting, it was a sad occasion.

“But now we can come back with my band and it’s like an exclusive festival debut of my band. We’re serious about who we are and what we want to do and I’m really glad that exclusively we get to play one festival and I’m glad that it’s High Voltage.”

‘2’ isn’t even in the shops yet but I can’t help asking if they’re already planning to record album number three.

“Bloody hell!” he replies. “I can tell you – and this might not happen – but Kevin wants to record next summer, 2012.

Black Country boys Jason Bonham and Glenn Hughes

“You never know what’s going to happen these days. I can tell you this though, we’re shooting this tour, we’re doing a BluRay and DVD on this tour, which will be released in the autumn for Christmas. ‘2’ is coming out this year, and in the autumn we’re going to have a full-on DVD.

“We’re digging deep into our pockets to make this real, investing into our own career here, which bands used to do in the 70s.. You’re going to see a bitchin’ DVD!”

Hughes is clearly on a roll.

“We want to embrace and establish our brand. We are serious about planting the flag,” he says.

“I joined this band to play live, I have to play  live. I have to play with Black  Country Communion and with GH solo. It’s in my blood. But it’s only going to help my solo career now because I’m going to be getting so many offers to do more things.

Black Country Communion at Wolverhampton Civic Hall

“My first love is the band. When people think of Glenn Hughes I’d like them to think of Black Country Communion because I’m sort of the mouthpiece and the guy that carries  the ball.

“This is my gig 24-7. Jason’s got the Led Zeppelin Experience, Joe’s got a long, long career.

“For me, I haven’t taken my foot off the gas on the solo thing but I’m very much running with Black Country Communion as a flag planter.”

• ’2′ is released on June 13, 2011.
• Black Country Communion play the High Voltage Festival in London on Sunday July 24 – visit www.highvoltagefestival.com
• The band then heads out on the road with gigs in Llandudno, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow and Manchester – see www.bccommunion.com
• Music photography by RocktasticPix.com