"When I was a kid I heard all this strange electronic music that came from Germany on pirate radio and on the Peel show and it seemed like music from another planet and I wanted it. Then one afternoon I was listening to Radio 1 and Annie Nightingale played one whole side of Rubycon and it was life changing. I said to her, many years later, "that was incredible!" and she said, "oh John used to do that all the time, he was the first to do that." But it was like Annie became a pirate for one moment and took over the whole of Radio 1. That meant a lot. That was the spirit of making music to me. You do what feels right. If you want to play half an hour, you do it and accept the consequences but you have to do what the music tells you to do. Tangerine Dream made these extraordinary, electronic soundscapes. Is it an animal or is it a machine? Tangerine Dream crossed over that a lot. And then Annie played the entire side and blew my head."

"I was about 14, 15 when I first heard this. There was a period just before punk when I was at grammar school. Grammar school being grammar school they tended to like these white rock bands. That was where I got introduced to bands like Yes, Zeppelin, Tangerine Dream, that I also liked. For me, they are my favourite American rock band. Their synergy, the way they play together, and again the engineering of that album, I don't think was ever surpassed. It's got everything. I suppose the Beach Boys might be contenders, but the Doors are my favourites."

"I wasn’t a fan of live records until I heard this because they always lacked something. But the energy on this record was stunning and the clarity and depth of the recording, the looseness of it, the songs they chose and the whole live atmosphere made it wonderful. Not just that, Richie Blackmore was a giant. I resonated more with Page and Brian May at the time because they had a unique style whereas Richie was just this amazing guitar player. He could take a strat and just play it, and his vibrato, his bending and his chops meant that he was as good as any of those guys. But you can’t compare let’s say the guitar playing on ‘The Battle Of Evermore’ with ‘ Whole Lotta Love’ or ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ with ‘Tangerine’, but with Richie Blackmore it was one thing: great rock guitar playing."

"Two films from the same year, each the start of my favorite run of movies from its director. Brian De Palma is my favorite director of all time, in the sense that I get more “if I was making films, I’d want them to look and feel like this” moments watching his movies than anyone else’s. For me, it’s with Dressed to Kill and then Blow Out that De Palma really homed in on the look, feel, and all-around aesthetic that I love from him and it’s something he brought with him to his next two films, Scarface and Body Double (which, along with Carlito’s Way, round out my favorites of his career to date). I love Thief for being Michael Mann’s incredible feature film debut as well as a blueprint of sorts for a number of films that came after it. It’s the first of my three favorites from him, rounded out by his next two films, the often panned but visually amazing The Keep (again with a great Tangerine Dream score) and Manhunter."