"“I think ‘Two lovers missing the tranquillity of solitude’ is one of my favourite lines ever written. ‘Days of speed and slow time Mondays / Pissing down with rain on a boring Wednesday’ – all that stuff, man. ‘Opening the windows and breathing in petrol.’ That was my life; we lived right by the gas station. I was like, ‘This sucks. I gotta get out of here.’ The song summed it all up perfectly. And it was all played on an acoustic guitar. I’d always look at the way that The Jam dressed, too. I’d say to myself, ‘Someday, I’m gonna be able to buy me them mod clothes, man.’ I still can’t afford them mod clothes, but whatever. I do my best! Anyway, after that was when I started getting into all the Sub Pop bands, like The Afghan Whigs."

"There have been many biographies about The Who but this one is almost as entertaining as the group it documents. Dave Marsh, who was a founding editor at Creem magazine and an editor at Rolling Stone, writes as an unashamed fan of the band. No other writer, with the exception of Richard Barnes, has ever really understood The Who the way Marsh did with this work. In Before I Get Old the author analyzes their roots in "Mod" culture to their development into "the first avant-garde rock band". As a biography it is valuable piece of rock-music history."

"This annoyed me at the time - like Animal House - because it was not historical. It was smearing late seventies ideas of street credibility over sixties mod. I thought it very doubtful that a top face would be working at a scrap yard, for instance. But who cares? I've seen it many times since and it's an excellent teen movie: a great soundtrack, strong cast - a new generation of actors like Ray Winstone, Phil Davies, Mark Wingett and Phil Daniels, who would go on to have lustrous careers - and an archetypal loner-vs-the-gang storyline. It's noticeable that as Jimmy gets weirder, he gets more androgynous. As the film goes on, the activities of the gang get so tiresome you don't blame him for breaking away."

"The very first Small Faces record was one of my favourites, with 'E Too D', 'Shake', 'Sha La La La Lee' and 'Whatcha Gonna Do About It?' That's one of the best records ever. I never saw the Small Faces, but they got on the radio. 'Shake' was the song – simple, three chords, but it sounded like everything was going on. It was a record that wasn't live, but sounded live to me. It's a great party record - a little dated now, but it is 50 years old. They sounded like they were having so much fun. I like records that sound like the band are having fun; mistakes never bothered me. The idea of mod didn't matter to me - they were just a British Invasion band."