Picture the scene. Thousands of fans swaying to the music of Bradford rock band New Model Army, mouthing the lyrics like a mantra.

Nothing so out of the ordinary about that, you might think, if the gig was taking place on the group's home patch.

But it is enough to raise an eyebrow when you realise the setting is the unlikely rock 'n' roll hotbed of Turkey.

It is 20 years ago this summer that New Model Army gave their first live performance. They've sold more than a million records all around the world and have a fanatical following in the most far-flung places.

Yet the group's frontman and inspiration Justin Sullivan is hardly a household name even in his own hometown. He can enjoy a coffee in his favourite Italia Caf in Great Horton Road without being mobbed by fans.

But he seems happy with his lot at the moment and is particularly gratified by finding enthusiastic audiences around the world.

"We went to Turkey last year for the first time. Everybody knew every word of every song. People were coming up to us afterwards saying 'We have been waiting 15 years for you to come!' They're terribly emotional," said Justin.

He is now the only survivor from the band's early days. Drummer Robert Heaton was the last remaining link but was replaced by Michael Dean after New Model Army's 1998 album Strange Brotherhood.

Despite their enduring popularity on the alternative rock scene, the band have been resolutely untrendy for many years and the hit singles pretty much dried up after 1991. Not that Justin is particularly troubled by not being on Top of the Pops any more.

"I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me but I'd also be lying if I said I lost sleep over it. It doesn't alter the fact of how I go about my life," he said.

Justin, now 43, has his own theory about why bands such as Pulp and The Smiths have found a place in the heart of the record-buying public in this country, while New Model Army are more successful abroad.

"The English are embarrassed by being emotional. The English like their art to come with a large slice of irony," said Justin. "The Germans are very direct and terribly romantic, a bit like our music.

"We were kind of famous for about two weeks in 1984 but we couldn't play then! We were rubbish! By the time we were great, by the late 1980s, when we were a brilliant band, we were considered in Britain to have had our 15 minutes."

New Model Army have just released Eight, the first album to be recorded by their latest line-up, which also features long-time bassist Nelson, keyboard player Dean White and guitarist Dave Blomberg.

And it's a record that Justin is very happy with. It is the first they have released on their own label Attack Attack but he is more proud of how the band have developed following the break-up of his songwriting partnership with Robert Heaton.

"This is a real songwriters' album. I think it's the best album we've done for ages. I lost my sense of what we were doing. We just got in each other's way all the time," he said.

"This last year has been a really good year for me. It's nothing to do with having our own label for me. I had complete creative control but not because of the absence of a record company but because there was a thing between me and Robert where we had worked together in a relationship where we were meant in theory to be equal.

"For Michael and Dean it was pretty much their first album so they were pretty excited about it. They were very enthusiastic. They brought lots of energy and freshness. That helped me because I've made a lot of albums.

"I feel I need to make up lost time. The dynamics have changed and I'm very happy with Michael and Dean. I do think that continually changing is the reason why New Model Army have stayed relevant."

As ever, many of the songs on the band's new album have a palpable sense of place. And for all their touring all over the world, Justin's love affair with Bradford shows no sign of abating.

"It's a funny kind of place. The more time I spend away, the more affectionate I get about the place," he said.

"In Leeds there is this idea that it's a kind of sophisticated, modern, financial centre which rubs Bradford up the wrong way. Bradford is a much nicer city in every way."

One of the tracks on Eight which is set in Bradford is called Leeds Road 3am and is about a car crash.

"Leeds Road 3am is a song I am particularly proud of. It's as good as anything I've written because the music and lyrics go together so well," said Justin, who is also planning to record a solo album of New Model Army's acoustic tracks later in the year.

"The music came from a drum loop of Michael's and I went through my old notebooks and found this story. The actual events in the song obviously didn't all happen on one night but the car crash did actually happen three years ago and I saw it."

His songs tend to have a concrete geographical location, which gives him plenty of scope for descriptive passages in his lyrics.

"People say my songs are like the weather forecasts. They always have the time of day in them. There's always weather going on in all of them.

"Weather, especially to English people, is generally important and helps your memory of an event and gives people a picture."

Simon Ashberry

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.