To say "Hey, they're big in Japan" is to make the veiled insult that they're not good enough to make it in their own country.

It's a phrase that may well have been created to describe US act Cheap Trick.

"I think so," says the band's guitarist Rick Nielsen.

"Well we were big in Japan. We weren't big any other place at that time. They really liked our songs and they liked the band."

In the late 1970s Cheap Trick couldn't crack it in the US but had a big following in Japan. So they headed over there and recorded the live album Cheap Trick at Budokan.

Originally intended for their Japanese audience, it ended up being released in the USA. It sold like hot cakes, eventually becoming the band's most successful album and ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the best 500 albums of all time.

Which meant they were no longer just big in Japan. It gave their career a kickstart and enabled them to still be playing shows and recording albums more than three decades later.

"Yeah, we're pretty lucky," Nielsen says. "OK, we're really lucky."

The retro circuit - where old rockers get back onstage to cash in - isn't where Cheap Trick fit. While they are playing with Billy Idol, the band is still very much a creative force and are still recording albums of new material.

"We're a living breathing band," Nielsen says. "Next week we'll be in the studio recording what we hope to be our next CD, album, cassette, 8-track - whatever we put it on.

"We've been working on songs half in LA and half in Nashville. We've always written songs. People always ask, when do you tour? Well, if we waited to have a hit to tour, we'd never tour.

"Our true fans would probably be clamouring to get a new record. Radio probably isn't."

Most people could name or recognise about five songs from Cheap Trick's extensive repertoire, which Nielsen says is a good reason to go to one of their shows.

"If you only know five songs, guess what - we play 17 songs in a set so you'll hear 12 that you've never heard before," he jokes.

But seriously, knowing only a few songs is OK with Nielsen - because that's how fans start.

"The fact that they know those is great," he says.

"It might make them go and try to discover the band, try and find out more about us.

"Hearing single songs is how a lot of people, including myself, found out about new bands. The first time I listened to Jimi Hendrix was on a Sunday night listening to England's top 10 on the radio.

"It was very hard to get it on the right position on the radio because it was coming from Little Rock, Arkansas.

"I heard Hendrix and thought 'wow, that's so cool'. You discover stuff if you're interested."

Cheap Trick supporting Billy Idol at WIN Entertainment Centre, March 18