NEW YORK—"We're not popular because we're not sensational," Supertramp's co-founder Roger Hodgson is explaining between pina coladas. "We're boring old farts." Very true that this, bunch of voluntarily self-exiled Britishers isn't exactly swamped with salivating fans on the street—yet. But they have caused riots in a tiny Vermont town, banning the rock there forever, and been given a key to the city of Fresno by its 28-year-old mayor. And with "Give A Little Bit" from their. latest LP, Even in the Quietest Moments, comfortably gliding through the Top Ten, it's merely a matter of, say, one more tour before the bearded fivesome learns all about adulation.

For now, half the band's 30-member entourage blithely drive to their gigs in the "granolabowl." "Why, it's our mobile home," bassist Dougie Thompson dryly explains, like it's something you hear everyday. His quizzical expression, symptomatic of the whole band, is enough to make one feel a character in a musical translation of Alice's mad tea party. Being, as Thompson puts it, "daft, British and..." has proven a haven for bored fans of the Yes/Pink Floyd axis looking for the Next Big Thing. The Canadians haven't wasted any time—up North, Supertramp is in the stadium cleanout category. Though New York's Palladium holds only 3500 fervent souls, they are equally in awe of this Force with perfect acoustics.