"To a greater or lesser extent, tribute acts always lack respect for the bands they cover."

So says Barry Martin, otherwise known as Slim, singer and guitarist with The Hamsters, greatest rodent rockers this side of the Thames River Delta.

But, I hear you protest, aren't The Hamsters best known as a Jimi Hendrix tribute themselves?

The answer, according to Slim, is a big fat gerbil 'no'.

"We were going before the whole tribute scene got going," says Slim.

"We don't dress up because, to me, dressing up makes a comedy of it. We just go out there and play the music we love to the audiences we know."

And this weekend, that means a spectacular double set of Hendrix and ZZ Top material on their biannual visit to the Boom Boom Club in Sutton.

Established as an American roots outfit and borrowing their name from a Sex Pistols pseudonym used to outwit hostile councils, The Hamsters have always had played plenty of their own blues-rock material.

But, when the 25th anniversary of Jimi's death came round in 1995, they marked the occasion with 150 Hendrix gigs in one calendar year - and realised they were on to something.

They now have a monthly residency at Putney's Halfmoon and are more than happy to make the short journey down to Sutton United's Borough Sports Ground on Saturday.

"South-west London has always been very good to us," says Slim, who has been playing with the very Reverend Otis, drummer, and Zsa Zsa, bass, for 20 years.

"It's a strange, indefinable thing but when you travel round the country, you find some areas are more into what you do than others.

"Boom Boom has a good atmosphere because the bands it puts on aren't at all self-conscious. A lot of bands around now, you're watching them and thinking: am I supposed to be enjoying this or is it supposed to mean something?"

For Slim and the gang, the only meaning is in making music for as long as is rodently possible.

Not only did The Hamsters play the main stage at this year's Guilfest but a track from their latest album, Open All Hours, made the August edition of Classic Rock magazine in a list of the top 100 blues anthems of all time.

The band were also name-checked on BBC1's Bargain Hunt but Barry insists that you're as likely to find a teenager at their gigs these days as a perma-tan David Dickinson.

"It's a mixture of youngsters and their parents who come along," he says.

"Our music is more accepted than it used to be. Blues was big in the 60s but then punk rock came along and rejected everything that went before it.

That lasted through to the 80s but what you're finding now is younger bands who aren't embarassed to be associated with it."

Less Stars in Their Eyes then and more the latest copy of NME: "Tonight Matthew, we're going to be... ourselves."

  • The Hamsters, The Boom Boom Club, Sutton United FC, Borough Sports Ground, Gander Green Lane, Sutton, Saturday, August 12, call 01784 460094 or 0208 460 4907, visit hamsters.co.uk