"The best voice. Even against Leonard Cohen’s, Bowie’s, or whoever’s – Frank Sinatra’s is the best voice. My favourite was the period in the Sixties when his voice was just unbelievable. The only thing with Frank is you sometimes think he is just standing there and all he’s thinking about is shagging someone straight afterwards. It’s that good – it’s like he’s taking the piss. Did he mean it? I can’t see how he could, cos he’s thinking “I am going to fuck off to Rio de Janeiro like it says in one of these songs” or “I’m gonna shag someone absolutely beautiful and then I’m gonna get pissed.” That is sometimes what I hear, and you can’t be that good. It’s like he’s written the words, but that’s another thing, to be able to do that with the words – which were generally brilliant in those days, lyrics have gone by the wayside these days, it’s generally Les Miserables crap now. I’m sure Sinatra would have puked up had he heard my man Michael Ball strangle the fucking life out of things. I love Michael Ball just because he’s so crap, but when he’s on telly he fluctuates in weight, so sometimes you think: who the fuck’s that? He turns into that Doctor Who bloke, Colin Baker. He’s dead funny in interviews and you have to have one of them on the telly, and it was either him or Bono, and I decided he’s the one."

"Nâ Hawa is an icon. She's still alive, she's younger than Nina Simone. For me, she's an example because she's one of those artists who started to push the female voice in Malian music. When I watched her videos when she was super famous in the past, I could never imagine that I could live like her. She's got the blues too. She never knew her mum, she passed away when she was giving birth to her. She always sang about tragic things but from her I realised that you can sing about your problems without complaining. She never complains, but she tells you her story. She was like a philosopher. She talks about normal life, how you can love each other, how you can live in peace, even if you've had bad experiences. She's a mum to me, in terms of writing. She always wrote about women, children, society, but with some beautiful melodies."

"I must have played this album a billion times. They're like a combination of some 70s cop movies from America with Animal from The Muppets playing drums. The drums on it are insane. It's just so distorted. I'd never heard drums like that on a record before. It's just that combination of things which should not work and things which not be regarded as being in good taste. The brass section is almost marching music and it's almost an anti-rock record, but you can't help but love it. Our friend Sam Dook plays guitar in the live band and we went to see them last time they played, at the Concorde in Brighton, and we got to meet yer man who was very gracious and really nice. I felt almost apologetic telling him how much I liked their debut album because I get so fed up with people telling me that they think Pink Flag is the best thing since sliced bread. I apologised to him as I said it, you know. Sometimes if you're a known person and you turn up to see someone live it can seem like you're just going along because we're all pals in show business and all that crap. I wanted to show him that I knew the music and I was really a fan. I played that record to death."

"I just love this song. My Mum was a big Bonnie Raitt fan, so I remember hearing it around the house as a kid. I didn't know this until I was much older, but I think my parents were having some issues when I was a kid at that time. I assume the message of ‘Can't Make You Love Me’ was something that my Mum really felt personally connected to. I don't think I realised it at the time but looking back on it now I think “Wow, that must have been a really cathartic thing for her to listen to.” “Bonnie Raitt’s voice is so rich and warm and buttery. When you hear her voice, no matter what kind of music you like, there's something about her voice that cuts through any preference of genre. She's got a really good voice. “I've sung the song a few times. When I was in my twenties I would go to a karaoke night at a bar in town. If there was a boy in the audience who I thought was cute, I would sing this song to try to get his attention. It worked, like eight times out of ten. Thanks Bonnie."