"When I was young I always dug listening to live concerts. It was like we were there. I always think that live albums are a good way to represent a body of work anyway because it shows the songs as part of a collection better than, say, a greatest hits record. It wasn't so much that Cheap Trick At Budokan was live, it was more the selection of songs. Rick [Nielsen] was really an amazing showman as a guitar player as far as the tricks that he did were concerned. Plus, the power that he had despite being essentially a three-piece rhythm outfit was amazing. Then you had Tom [Petersson] with his twelve-string bass… Whoever thought someone would play something like that? I could have done without some of the squealing but having gone to Japan so much; I get it. That's their way of showing you that they loved you. I never really considered Cheap Trick to be a glam rock band. People forget that Rick used to have long hair before he transitioned to having short hair and wearing baseball caps when they supported KISS in 1977. Take a song like 'Hello There'. It has such a killer, punk rock attitude. It reminds me of Mötley Crüe doing a song like 'Live Wire': you don't expect that kind of aggression and when you hear it you think, ""Alright, you dudes can let it rip when you want to.""

"It's such a beautiful record. What can I say? Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman from The Byrds did these soul songs like 'Do Right Woman', which was originally recorded by Aretha Franklin and they played it like a country rock song. Also, they took like 'Dark End Of The Street', which was written by Dan Penn, originally for the soul singer James Carr on Goldwax, a Memphis label, which they also recorded in the style of a country rock song. Country rock is often a dirty term, but to turn that into something else, that transformation was incredible. Gram's gentle, soulful voice completely slays me every time! I'm in love with Gram Parsons. I feel like I know him. When I hear him sing, his voice fills me up and makes me feel loved. Admitting that you're broken and sad that a woman left you, feeling vulnerable was rare in music, apart from maybe soul and blues. But rock music was so macho. Gram turned up and wrote these beautiful original songs. It's okay to admit you're weak, it's okay to admit you have a broken heart. A huge influence on me and Primal Scream. Also, when I got married to my wife Katy England, I had Alexander McQueen design for myself and my wife a suit with satin lapels and hemmed embroidery in the trousers and jacket with roses, in tribute to Gram Parsons."

"I can guarantee you this film isn’t on anyone else’s list. It stars Gene Hackman and it’s made by my favorite British film director, even more than Nick Park. He’s a guy named Nick Roeg, and he’s most famous, probably, for Don’t Look Now. Eureka is the film that probably ended his American career. I think it was a disaster when it was released. The first half of this movie is as good as you’ll ever get in a movie. It’s about a guy who discovers, literally, liquid gold. He becomes the richest man in the world and the man who has everything and the man who has nothing. The second half of the film is a trial and takes place in a courtroom and that part doesn’t work as well, which is what probably led to it being a flop, but the first half is as good as it gets. And I love Nick Roeg. He’s idiosyncratic, highly individual and yet for a ten year period he was working in the studio system with big stars like Gene Hackman. Hackman’s never been better. People say “Hackman” and think of The Conversation but he’s never better than he is in Eureka. If you can imagine a man who has everything and he (Hackman) just plays it as a guy who has nothing."