Taken from: The Times: May 8, 1993, Saturday

KEITH Allen is nothing to do with the Comic Strip. ''I'm nothing to with the Comic Strip; I'm not in it, I'm just close to it mainly through Peter Richardson.''

 However, if you ask anyone who the Comic Strip actually is, everyone will say: ''Rik and Ade, Dawn and Jenny, Peter and Keith.'' They are the Comic Strip. The Comic Strip is them. Allen is either being overly modest, or he has had a flaming row with all of them and this is the tail-end of a high-powered sulk.

 So what is his view of Comic Strip?

 ''Well, I think that a year or so ago, I would not have been alone in saying that the Comic Strip had come to a natural end or maybe even outstayed its welcome,'' he says, busily tucking into a sausage sandwich. He answers every question briskly, so the interview does not intrude too greatly on his breakfast. ''But now I think it would be a great shame if there wasn't another series. I think this particular grouping of Comic Strip could do some really great stuff.''

 One of the Great British Gripes along with moaning about how the summers are not as hot as they used to be is that the Comic Strip is not as funny as it used to be.

 ''Yeah, well, in the old lot there were some absolute classics but that was over seven or eight years. The drugs were stronger in those days,'' he says fondly, ladling more brown sauce on to his plate.

 The Comic Strip was founded in the early 1980s. Peter Richardson started doing stand-up at Raymond's Revue Bar in sleaziest Soho; so when it came for a group name to be found, ''Comic Strip'' jumped to mind and nestled there like a little puppy. Allen had got into comedy because he was ''bored out of my mind. I was doing theatre in Stockport, which was dull, so I came back to London and started a band called the Atoms our rhythm guitarist couldn't play guitar. Brilliant. We only played talent contests, that was our thing, our rule. Weird thing is, we kept winning. But before you could say 'jackboots', I had this fascist following. Reactionary right-wing skinheads.''

 Why did they like him?

 ''Oh, it was my attitude. We'd start off very normal, crooning 'Fly Me To The Moon', and then I'd lean over the audience and start shouting things like, um...'' (Anyone who desperately wants to know can send me a stamped addressed envelope.)

 The second week that the Comedy Store opened, Allen was living in a squat in Harrow Road, and was dragged along to see the acts by a friend. Alexei Sayle was just starting his act ''half of which was lifted from a Situationist play he was in at the time,'' Allen adds, ''and I saw what they were all doing, and I wanted in. So I thought up an act.''

 Which was?

 ''Well, I just got up on stage, looked at the audience and said, 'You're a bunch of wankers. What are you going to do about it?'''

 Did you get beaten up?

 ''A bloke threw a bottle at me while I was playing a piano, and it completely missed me and smashed in the face of a guy who was just about to pour a pint of beer over my head. So this guy was standing there, crying, his girlfriend was screaming, and as they led the guy offstage, he shouted at me, 'You've ruined my Christmas.' Now what was all that about?'' Allen squints into the sun quizzically.

 So does he think comedians have it easier now?

 ''I've got no idea,'' he says blithely. ''I don't go to comedy clubs, I don't watch television... Television comedy is changing now, anyway,'' he continues. ''You're more likely to get a situation-based comedy now a la Absolutely Fabulous than you are to have Saturday Night Live or any programmes that profile new comedians.''

 Allen is happy being a mixture of things, however. As well as the Comic Strip, he is trying to lose two stone to play an Aids victim; plus he is directing a UB40 video. Allen has always had strong ties with the music industry with New Order he co-wrote England's World Cup theme, which was at number one for months.

 ''Yeah, well, this year I'm putting all my efforts into writing the Welsh World Cup song, because I don't think England has got much of a chance, do you?''

 Will it be written in Welsh? ''Haven't decided yet. But I want Anthony Hopkins introducing it, Tom Jones singing it, the Manic Street Preachers doing the music, and the Welsh male voice choir doing the 'sha-la-la' bits.''

 Allen looks up from the wreckage of his breakfast and grins. ''That'd be good.''

The Comic Strip Presents, BBC2, Thursday 9pm.