Quotes

Back when the band got big, you couldn't say, 'I'm into Emerson Lake & Palmer,' you'd be laughed off the front pages of NME. But you could still like Kraftwerk, who sort of spawned everything: rave, prog, etc. It was okay to like them if you were a punk, if you were a Bowie fan, all that stuff, you could like 'em. They were and are one of my favorites.

[on Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells"] I've been really digging "Tubular Bells" in the last few weeks. It's like so uncool, but I don't care! I loved it then, and I love it now.

[on "Meddle" by Pink Floyd] I don't sit around and listen to punk too much, really. But I will play a record like "Meddle". If I had to pick a desert-island disc, it would be something like that record, really!

I loved interesting and complex stuff, like Yes, and especially early Genesis, their stuff with Peter Gabriel. Like that tune "Supper's Ready", especially, that song is complex and wonderful.

Back then, you had to toe the line. I'd chime in with the odd "I like Jethro Tull," and everyone would be like, "God, no!" But Tull were different, because everyone was all doing blues stuff and lame boogie-woogie, right? And then they have a tune like 'Song for Jeffrey,' and it's all Beefheart! They were big Beefheart fans, and you can see that, they took that sort of bluesy thing and made it freaky, which I loved.

When I sit around the house, I don't play The Clash, really, or anybody like that. I'm more likely to throw on some prog, honestly. It's just more interesting!

Everybody used to go and watch everybody else, but it was generally to slag them off. That was kind of normal. Liverpool had a very bitchy vibe then. We didn't like The Smiths, we hated them. We thought we were the best and nobody else was worth worrying about.