After two years of striving and starving in NYC they crossed the sea and found a (spiritual) home. Their impact was phenomenal.

Joey Ramone remembers: "That was the beginning, it was great, historic. Playing the Roundhouse and Dingwalls and selling out. Having all those kids coming to our soundcheck. A lot were to become the Clash and the Sex Pistols and all the groups that followed. It was great. Wild.

"Punk rock changed the world. I feel we revolutionised rock and roll. It was something that just happened. I guess in the same way the Beatles didn't know what was going to happen, or Elvis Presley didn't know what was going to happen. Things were getting pretty dull then and it's getting like that again now. All that synthesiser stuff to me isn't rock and roll, it's elevator music or something. I hear better music in my elevator.

"I guess the groups I liked best were the Buzzcocks, the Undertones and the bands of that era. When they all disbanded I was sorta ... hurt. I thought they were great, even Sham 69."

Last Christmas I heard 'Too Tough To Die' and something in me went WOOSH! Suddenly the Ramones were sounding as fresh and exciting and as gutsy and energetic and as necessary and as without seat belts as they were over their first three albums.

Yet 'Too Tough' isn't a throwback or even a mere return to form. Regardless of pedigree it is a vital 1985 record. It has a real politic (some thing significantly overlooked by reviews in both The Guardian and Time Out) that explodes in big chunks all over the listener. It is vital in a realist sense. Something that the early 'cartoon' Ramones could never have been.

Joey Ramone opened the hotel room door and bent down to shake my hand. These days the Ramones are very, very real.

Joey: "Whenever I'd read that we were a cartoon it really upset me. I remember doing an interview on the phone with a guy who said 'you're like cartoon characters'. I got really pissed off and said 'what d'ya mean by that?' He said that we had very definite, distinguished personalities. So I didn't mind. If that's what it meant."

Dee Dee: "I guess our image paid homage to juvenile delinquency and everybody took us for a bunch of juvenile delinquents."

Joey: "Most bands have no personality. There's millions of synth bands and millions of metal bands all spiked up like David Lee Roth. They usually have one song which is really catchy. To me it's a joke that these guys are stars. These guys are horrible but they make it in America cos America's horrible."

Once upon a time it seemed the Ramones all lived in Manhattan lofts, ate junkfood, watched TV and went to Rockaway Beach in summer.

Joey: "Well, in the beginning I used to share a loft and eat junkfood. I remember the early days when we were all broke with nothing. I used to hang out at CBGB's because it was across the street, just to get warm. I'd rather drink a couple of beers, I guess it's nutritious – I couldn't afford to eat so I figured I'd go across the street and have a couple of beers for dinner. Things have picked up now ... "

In the British press it was Joey the giraffe and Dee Dee the dumb.

Dee Dee: "Yeah, and I don't know why they did that to me but ... I don't think I'm dumb. I think I'm a very sensitive, deep thinking person. I have a lot of knowledge about life. I've led a very deep and experienced life and I've a lot of knowledge that an older man probably wouldn't have."

Joey: "Just by reading his lyrics how could you think he was dumb? I think he's real articulate. There were things that came out in the press that I wasn't too thrilled about. In fact, at one time I didn't wanna do another interview with the British press ... it was sick. They'd start ripping apart your household, your mother. It was crazy."

Maybe the early Ramones were just too good to be true and no one (in Britain) could believe they really existed! But between 'Rocket To Russia' and the present LP they endured a trough: various so-so producers and a tiresome search for the hit single that would establish them as a mainstream band in the USA.

Fortunately (sez I) they never found it despite record company ploys and coloured vinyl (Joey: " 'Road to Ruin' came out on disgusting yellow vinyl. I think I'm the only person who got a red copy.").

Like a kid defending an ugly pet everybody else wants to stamp on, Joey still claims those mid-period records were good even if, he admits, nobody else likes them.

But now in America hardcore has struck and the Ramones are its natural Godfathers. 'Too Tough' is essential Ramones and essential hardcore. The sound is tough, the vision is bleak.

Dee Dee: "We wanted to make a real Ramones record and recapture us. America is a pretty bleak place, there's no hope really. When we started out writing about politics and stuff all of a sudden it was 'hey, the Ramones preaching left-wing propaganda'. But that's how we felt. We wanted to show we had feelings. We've gotten serious with this album."

Joey: "These lyrics represent us whereas most bands just don't care anymore. There aren't that many that you can really respect. In the 60s I looked up to Pete Townshend and John Lennon, even people that fooled me a bit. I thought they might be more real than they were ... like Alice Cooper. When I first got into him in '72 I thought 'this guy is really sick!' Then I found out he was straight and I was real disgusted and upset. I thought the guy was a real sick necrophiliac and that was great HA! HA! There really aren't many people you can really believe in, they're either dead or don't exist anymore or else they've gotten commercial.

"I feel our product, even though we might have got a little side tracked, is now back on course. It's the perfect album. Very diverse and yet very intense. I think it just reflects the state of the world right now. A lot of tracks touch on the political side like 'Planet Earth 1988' – that song, hey Dee Dee remember when you played it to me on that piano thing? I thought it was great. Every word perfectly stated."

Dee Dee: "It's very flattering to be the top hardcore band in the world but we're not a trend. We're the perfect band for hardcore kids to dance to but they make fun of the old rock and roll of the 50s and 60s whereas we have allegiances to that rock. We really like Buddy Holly."

Joey: "If you take all that old stuff and '76 punk rock there is so much similarity. For a while back then I wanted to do 'Peggy Sue'. I think it's great, I can hear John's guitar in there. Er, John's our guitar player."

Dee Dee: "And everybody copied his style."

Joey: "But that early stuff is great, Purity, the real thing. That's rock music simple, basic and exciting."

Dee Dee: "People have created images of what we're supposed to be like, they didn't give our personalities a chance. Everybody thinks that the Ramones go on stage smashed out of their heads but we don't even get high before we go on."

Joey: "I don't mind them thinking we're out of our minds but we're real, we're us. We're gen-u-ine."

Dee Dee: "We could never be phoneys. The only thing we have to maintain is our dignity. In the future I'd like to write for other people and stuff but I don't want to put pressure on myself. I've already done everything now and I have to live the rest of my years as easy as I can. I hope I never have to get a job!"

The best group in the world.

Again.