"It's really weird: I kind of had a bit of a problem with The Teardrop Explodes. I really didn't like them as a group, and it's very strange because our recording desk in Cardiff… I think Kilimanjaro was recorded on it. But as soon as Julian Cope left Teardrop Explodes I just completely turned onto him, and especially this record, because it's brilliant. There's some benchmark songs on here, which are hard for anybody to top. There's one called 'Bill Drummond Said' which is just fucking brilliant, and there's a song called 'Reynard The Fox', which is just… he does such a brilliant job of having a narrative of why he disagrees with something but pitching it in such a beautiful way. And there's 'The Bloody Assizes'; Julian Cope, now, has this afterlife of being this writer who seems to mix the high-rise block of ideas in his head with reality. It's really amazing. And he's become some sort of historian about myth and Krautrock, and I loved one of his quotes when he did an interview for this book: "I only look like this because I feel like such a cunt when I'm crying inside all the time." This record shows why he's such a brilliant solo artist. It's got a lovely, bucolic flintiness to it. There's something about it; you realise he's detached himself from his previous life and The Teardrop Explodes, and he's just out there in the woods doing something. And you cannot like a record which has a cover of the artist's… you know. Naked inside a big turtle shell on the cover. I remember it got really mixed reviews, but I think a lot of people do consider it a classic. I do; he's done other good stuff, but it's his best record."

"It’s about Philippe Petit who walked across the World Trade Center in 1974, and it’s just…you watch that movie and it’s like you really get that whole [idea of] someone who did something super unique, that did something. It’s just an unbelievable thing; it’s so moving to watch. That’s my new favorite film right now, and having just seen it, it’s so mindboggling. We don’t see enough documentaries; I love watching documentaries, and obviously there are really amazing ones and all that kinda stuff. But this one, I think, is profound to watch, because the footage is unbelievable, to really just see it from all different perspectives. I remember the interview with the security guard who went upstairs, and that awe on his face, and he was like, “I came out, and there’s this guy on a wire hanging between these two buildings.” They’re trying to get him to come off, but it’s just like, he can’t help himself. He’s like, “It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.” And you feel that. Just to imagine having been there. I wasn’t born for another five years, so I missed that, but damn, that’s such an incredible thing. I just met [Petit] recently; he’s such an odd bird, he’s not so comfortable in a social setting, but it’s like there’s an energy that comes out of him that’s just like, to know you’re truly unique, to feel that personally, you know? There are the geniuses that you meet in the world, and the Quentin Tarantinos and stuff like that. You could talk to him, and he’s like, “I know I’m a genius!” It’s amazing. But there’s a whole other level, where you’ve done it physically…everything else must seem so small. [laughs] Or maybe big, actually, you know?"