"I’m going to break my rules for this one, and just put in one old movie. I still think that Animal House is misunderstood, although I do increasingly read about a generation of comedians saying it is the great film. Because I think it’s a brilliant comedy, with brilliant acting, with everybody at their best – Karen Allen at her cutest, Tim Matheson at his handsomest, John Belushi at his most mono-syllabic. So these extraordinary comic performances with just a series of amazing scenarios with amazing set-ups with the horse and the chainsaw, the dead girlfriend, them going to the toga party, and just everything about it. It’s boiled down to the funniest joke scenarios that there could possibly be. That fantastic Elmer Bernstein score, which could be from Patton. “It seems to me like a really great, classic, funny character movie hiding in wolves clothing, pretending to be a big stupid old generic college movie, but it actually invented the genre, and I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a funnier version of those movies. Certainly when I was doing The Boat That Rocked, it was M*A*S*H on the one hand – very casual, conversational, just guys doing a weird job – and Animal House on the other – with big characterisations and set-pieces.. So we’ve got four moderns and one slightly older. Can I have one more? Am I allowed? Just for sorrow?"

"I remember this from the time, but also my son, Sonny, who's five, is obsessed with this record. I first played it to him when he was three and he'd get his little guitar off the shelf and just go mental with it. When one of your kids likes it that means you have to listen to it about 15 times a day but I didn't mind. It's like, "Yeah let's stick it on, play it louder." It's just absolutely perfect and so heavy. And lyrically I get it now but I didn't at the time. You don't really get lyrics when you're a kid. You just think it's about horses. I always thought Jeff Beck's 'Hi Ho Silver Lining' was "silver lightning" - I thought it was about a horse. That whole thing to me is just a love song for a horse. Fuck knows what it's actually about. Drugs? Yeah, probably. One of my favourite memories of school is the school cloakroom full of tartan - that was for Bay City Rollers, but it just really reminds me of this era. My sister was a couple of years younger than me but she had Osmonds socks and an Osmonds lampshade. She had a couple of their albums. But 'Crazy Horses' is such a fantastic record. The first record that I ever liked was 'Billy Don't Be a Hero' by Paper Lace. I nearly chose that, but then I listened to it again and it's not very good."

"If I could pick a song that I could go back in time and write, this is it. I think it's a perfect composition from start to finish, the melody to the drum groove, it’s really hard man. I think if I was to play that drum groove on its own a lot of people would think how does this fit into anything? And the fact this man's made this love song, that can be played in soundsystems, you can listen to it at home, it's so like transferable and I just love that about it. There's no right or wrong place to play it. I could play this at my wedding, I could play this if I’m going through a break up and I’m at home on my own, I could play this at a gig. I mean, for me it’s just a perfect song. And I think for the album, I was more concerned with writing songs than I was creating music for improvisation. I can do that, it wasn’t about trying to prove that, I want you to listen to this from start to finish, everything should be a great song. That was a good three and a half minutes. I was trying to get that with a lot of the tracks where it just takes you on this journey and that's a great example."

"They’re a vocal group and started back in the heyday of very early reggae records. It’s the Jamaican parallel universe of rock & roll. It echoes rock & roll, R&B, Motown, soul. It has all the vocabulary of great 50s rock & roll. It’s pop music. It has this work ethic and immediacy: “We’re just making records, and making records, and making records.” It’s like surf music. It’s guys around the world in cheapo studios just digging deep. I love the vocalising of The Heptones. Even later records. I always loved them. I’m a sucker for the 60s records. All of their early records are singles. The first time they got compiled was probably the 70s. There’s one song called 'School Girls' that I almost covered a few years ago [Black essentially covers it for the Quietus there and then]. It’s so heartfelt and heartbroken. It’s like, it’s like, it’s like when I listen to 'The Great Pretender' [sings] “Oh yes! I’m the great pretender…” The Platters were a lot smoother than The Heptones. But The Heptones have that beautiful harmonising and soulfulness. Whenever I hear The Heptones I think, I wish I could sing that good. They do an amazing version of 'Knock On Wood'. They fuckin’ own it, man! It’s already a big hit for whoever the fuck recorded it. They sell it, they own it, they wear the hat."

"I thought this was a really interesting mix of horror and sex. There are so many sexual references, from the robot attacking Sigourney Weaver, and he rolls up a magazine and stuffs it down her throat, I mean, wow! Or the fact that Ash’s blood looks like semen, it’s just a lot of that kind of stuff. Deep, deep psychological sexual stuff; like calling the computer ‘Mother’. It’s really fascinating, and I think that’s why it’s so successful in scaring you. It places imagery that’s deep and sexual in a horror show. It’s designed to scare people, all this stuff that is repressed, and gets inside their psyche and is truly uncomfortable, and I think it’s right in (Alien artist and production designer) HR Giger‘s designs, I think sex is what we’re all afraid of."