The thing that had gone missing with the whole music scene was what I'd grown up with. The Stones (The Rolling Stones) and The Doors and the Velvets (The Velvet Underground) and all these other fucking great bands, they came with rock 'n' roll stories. And by the time sort of 1983, '84 had come, it was like a 1976 version of Top of the Pops (1964) on repeat. It had gone fucking sterile again. Show less «

When I watched Stardust (1974), it was like, I wanna do that. I wanna be in a band, I wanna shag birds, I wanna go round the world, I wanna take drugs. In the early seventies, David Essex got thrown in with the teeny bop. So fucking what. He was great. Show less «

Music was all about tribes. Punk, Mod, disco, funk, right? The thing that attracted us together as mates was I wasn't scared to say I liked Elvis (Elvis Presley) and Parliament and Madness and Joy Division and Tom Jones and Northern soul and fucking Buzzcocks (The Buzzcocks). And that's what Bez and Gaz Whelan were like and to a certain extent Mark Day, although he liked Motown along with Led Zeppelin, sort of thing. We were all like, "Fuck the tribes." And what E did was bring everyone around to our way of thinking. "Hey, I can mix The Waterboys with a Spanish dance tune." People weren't afraid to say, "I like this and I like that." Show less «

Don't trust anyone that doesn't like any Bowie (David Bowie) songs. They're a wrong 'un.

I don't give a fuck if some young smart arse goes, "Hey, you're not a real musician, 'cos you did Come Dine with Me (2005)". It's like, Fuck off! Let's see where you are 10, 15 years down the line, you sad c**t. Show less «