Hunter says he's glad those days are behind him.
"I hated it all. In the seventies I was terrified. People were dying. Not only people in the band, everyone around us. If you were actually there and weren't out of it, it was horrible. It was a nightmare."
The band split up for the first time in 1979 after attempting to crack the American market.
Dragon reformed in August 1982 but again split in 1997 when singer Marc Hunter was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer.
Hunter reformed the band again in 2006, partly because information about Dragon was nowhere to be found on the internet.
"There was no presence anywhere of it. It was like it was just gone."
This version of the band, with Mark Williams on lead vocals, is the most stable line-up so far.
Williams says that's because of the varied personalities in the band.
"There's more than just one mediator in the band that tries to keep it on a level."
These days it's a younger audience which turns up for a Dragon gig and the songs have taken on a life of their own.
"They are not our songs anymore, they belong to everybody. We just happen to be playing them," Hunter says.
Williams says the lyrics have taken on different meanings, like band anthem, Are You Old Enough?
"Everything has become more acceptable. A song like that was controversial at the time."
Hunter says the song has now become an anthem for everything that has happened to the band.
"The crowd sings and it's all about the guys who have passed through the band and the mortality that we have.
"It's really moving. Mark and Paul and Neil live on in the crowds' singing."
The band released a new album and EP in 2011 and the Hunter says audiences sing along with the new material as much as the old.
"It's great to get a big a cheer for something you wrote 10 months ago as it is for something that's 30 years old," he says.
* Dragon will play 14 dates in October supported by Hello Sailor. For dates and ticket information, click here.
