Italy's SpazioRock.it has issued an interview with RAVEN bassist John Gallagher. The following is an excerpt, conducted by Daniele Carlucci:

Q: You're regarded as one of the NWOBHM pioneer bands. After more than thirty years, many of the NWOBHM bands are still among the best-known and most appreciated in the world. In your opinion, what is the key to success for heavy metal?

A: "To be true to yourself, to make music that you enjoy and not to follow a trend... to contrive music to appeal to a particular crowd is not the way, unless you want to do dance music! Metal is from the heart and soul and the audience senses this very strongly."

Q: What was the strangest thing that ever happened to you before, during or after a show?

A: "Oh, too many to mention...my pants bursting open onstage in Cleveland, yes... the goods were in the window! Mark once had a rocket firing guitar: it promptly set the roof of the stage on fire resulting in complete chaos as roadies had fire extinguishers going, choking us! But my fave was a club manager coming onstage at a show in Philadelphia one minute into our set and shouting into Mark's ear... Mark almost collapsed laughing... I asked what did he say... are we playing too loud? Mark said "No, he said we are playing too FAST!"."

Read the full interview at this location.

Raven have updated their tour itinerary with the announcement of more European dates.

Scheduled dates currently include:

May

22 - Gelsenkirchen, Germany - Rock Hard Festival

June

12 - Sölvesborg, Sweden - Sweden Rock Festival
19 - Clisson, France - Hellfest
25 - Dessel, Belgium - Graspop Metal Meeting

July

31 - Brande bei Elmshorn, Germany - Headbangers Open Air

August

1 - Kerkraade, Netherlands - The Rock Temple
4 - Den Haag, Netherlands - Het Paard
6 - Wacken, Germany - Wacken Open Air
7 - Deinze, Belgium - Alcatraz Metal Festival

Raven's John Gallagher (vocals, bass) appeared live in the studio on Monday, May 3rd on Eddie Trunk Live on Sirius (channel 19) / XM Radio (channel 53).

Listen to the audio interview in 7 segments below: