"Jonathan Richman sounded a bit like Lou Reed. The songs were fantastic. The only place you could buy that album was the Rock On store in Camden Town. I think everybody, including John Rotten and all of the Pistols, had been down there at some point to buy it. Anybody that later got into the punk rock scene had bought this record. It still sounds really good. John Cale produced it. It's under-produced if anything, which is what's so good about it. His voice is great. American punk rock was completely different from the London scene – you had Richard Hell & the Voidoids and Television and that, and it all seemed a bit arty. But this was four college kids from California who had got together and made a dark record. It sounds like a guy who's had his heart broken. It's a romantic punk record, really. 'Roadrunner' is the one everybody learnt when they were rehearsing or trying to get into a band. The way he sang, he just sort of threw it away. I can't really think of anybody who'd done it like that before. The solos were great, just one or two notes. Very simple stuff, which was what appealed to the punks. The whole punk thing was about stripping things down because people couldn't play very well. Get the band first and worry about the music later. I saw Jonathan Richman last year doing a festival somewhere, just him and a drummer. He's the only person I know who tells the sound guy to turn it down. But back then he was streets ahead of everyone."

"Number two is slightly different. There are similarities. It’s gotta be This Is Spinal Tap. It’s gotta be that. Just the detail of that as well. What I love about Spinal Tap is, I think it’s the first example of that; it has been carried on through things like The Office and Arrested Development, because they have quite similar qualities. It’s comedy that’s made for people with a sense of humor. You actually have to have quite an attuned sense of humor to know why things are funny in that. I think some comedy is written and performed at an audience, like,”This is it, this is funny. You are not funny, but you’re gonna watch us be funny.” The thing about a lot of that stuff — and I think Spinal Tap is the kind of crystallization of that — you have to be quite a funny person, and have quite a grasp of the work in the comedy to know why Derek Smalls saying, “David, ‘Smell the Glove’ is here. Hello, Jeanine,” over the microphone is a funny thing for him to do. And you have to know why that’s an inappropriate thing to do. And you have to have an understanding of the rules of comedy, and just the rules of everyday social graces to know why that is funny. I kind of like being part of that exclusive club. You’re kind of in on the joke. It’s a communal experience because we’re trusting you that you’re smart enough to know why this is funny without us having to describe it and spoon feed it to you. I like the elitism of being part of that club."