"This was a bit of a dodgy situation at the time but I didn’t know that. Tom had asked me to work with him and it was a solo record and that was all I knew. It wasn’t with the group. He used Mike [Campbell, Heartbreakers lead guitarist] for guitar and it was Mike’s studio that we recorded in, in his garage in LA. Tom just stopped me in the street one day in Beverley Hills somewhere and he said, ""I’ve just been listening to George Harrison’s new album. I love it. I’m having a barbecue. Do you wanna come?"" I couldn’t go so he said, ""do you fancy writing some songs together and see what we come up with?"" and I said, ""yeah, I’d love to!"" So I went round his house the next day and after we wrote one, we then wrote, believe it or not, ‘Freefalling’ which was such a big hit for him. So it worked out great and we carried on doing them in Mike’s garage, which was an amazingly sparse studio. It was a garage full of motorbikes and oil cans and bedsteads and things like that - it was pretty amazing! Where him and George looking for that panoramic ELO sound? Well, it wasn’t always that panoramic a sound. I was gradually quietening that sound down that ELO had done and there were less strings. In ELO, it used to be a case of, ""oooh! String day tomorrow!"" and then by about the tenth album it became [adopts dismayed voice] ""oh, fucking hell! It’s string day tomorrow."" I’d had enough of them. I grew tired of the strings. But that’s not why they asked me. It was more the punch I was doing later on and they just liked the sound that I made, whatever it was. They liked something about it."

"Field Music are the kind of band that don't inspire me, in as much as they don't inspire me to pick up a guitar again - they make me realise there's no point. No matter how much time I put in, I'll never be able to get anywhere near their inventiveness and dexterity. David and Peter Brewis are not only two of the best guitarists in Britain - they're also two of the best drummers, songwriters and producers as well. I got into them around their Tones Of Town album which is like their Beatles album, with perhaps a bit of Genesis thrown in for good measure. 'She Can Do What She Wants' is perfect pop music and 'A Gap Has Appeared' is two minutes of unbridled prog-pop genius. After this, they weren't even sure if there would be another album, but thankfully there was Measure, their most accomplished work to date. It's a masterpiece. It sounds like it was recorded on a huge budget with Todd Rundgren producing. It wasn't, however - it was just Pete and David in their own studio in Sunderland. From start to finish, this is a flawless modern band showing their talents and influences. They're on hiatus now, and I don't know exactly what that means. I know Peter and his missus Jen are expecting a baby in March, and when I teamed Matt Friedberger and David up for a recent session for my programme there was talk of them forming a band together. That'll be mind-blowing. I told David I'd want to be their roadie if they get the band together and tour. He said, 'Well, we will be needing a bass player…' Ha… No chance. Not in a million years will I put myself between two musicians I reckon are absolutely worthy of the title genius. I'll be happy carrying their amps."

"I was into so much stuff around this time. It was 1981 and I was 12, turning 13 at the end of the year. I loved Duran Duran and Associates, 2 Tone stuff, ABC, The Jam... it didn't really matter then. You didn't have to be part of any tribe. We had them, but we never called them mods or rockers or whatever. We had the Sweats - they were the heavy guys who used to sit in a circle and smoke dope on the school field. They liked Motörhead and they all stank of patchouli oil. But they were all very friendly. Then there the Smoothies - they were more like mods really. Very tidy and neat, with these wedge haircuts. But I could never really do that. I could be one thing one day, and something else the next. I liked 'Ace Of Spades' at the same time as liking 'Planet Earth'. It was all the same thing. I remember being in class and we were all talking about 'Love Action', and singing the middle bit - "I believe, I believe what the old man says...", which I thought was profoundly wise at the time. It's still pretty good. I like the line, "I believe in truth/ Though I lie a lot." The noises in the intro really intrigued me. And for a while I did put the air guitar down and get my mum's ironing board out and play the synths on that. The music's quite cold - it's quite a cold groove for a love song. And it is a love song. His voice is kind of warm, but he's got such authority - you believe everything he's singing. At the end of that year, when Dare came out, everybody had it. It was great."