"I discovered Flipper when I was in Boston. I was in a record shop and I saw a sleeve on the wall - one of those more expensive ones that still wasn't very expensive. But there's something about the cover that made it seem along the lines of the DIY things I'm really into. So I bought it without hearing it and it was brilliant. It was like a kind of insane... well Public Image Ltd are already insane. But it was like an even more insane Public Image Ltd, with an amazing groove and totally demented vocals. I really got into them with that record and the first one - Album – Generic Flipper - is also brilliant. That's another example of a really bad sleeve actually... it's pretty awful. The fish logo, worn by Kurt Cobain or not, is pretty terrible. With Flipper it makes sense though. It's a bit like the Jesus Lizard, where they're trying deliberately to piss you off."

"""I bought the first Buzzcocks album on the day it came out. I still have it in its plastic carrier bag. I knew it was going to be good as the Buzzcocks were already great. There was an excitement about being a youngster and liking the Buzzcocks at that time. Again, they were from my town and it was unheard of at that time for a band from Manchester to get the kind of commercial attention the Buzzcocks were attracting. They were on Top Of The Pops and were influencing other bands from around the country. And they sounded like they were from Manchester too. They were clever lyrically and clever musically. Buzzcocks made modern guitar music that was appropriately punky but sounded razor-sharp on the radio in the middle of such a load of mainstream nonsense, which was a great source of pride for many Mancunians. That, coupled with the aesthetic of the band and the way they did their sleeve artwork and the way they dressed, was a very potent combination. Buzzcocks influenced The Smiths massively in the way we approached our record sleeves and our choice of independent record company - because of the Buzzcocks we took on a Mancunian DIY ethic, whilst being in the charts."""