"This was when Madness were out of action, and ecstasy was in the air, I was checking out this and checking out that, and I remember hearing ‘Loaded’ in a supermarket in Kilburn High Road and I said “Fuck, what’s this coming through the speakers?” But I was reminded of it because I saw Primal Scream at Glastonbury this year, doing the whole album, and it just reminded me what a fucking great album it was. ‘Higher Than The Sun’, I think, was their masterpiece. I don’t think anyone got it better, that ethereal space between rock and dance music, than them with Andy Weatherall. I thought Happy Mondays were great, and The Stone Roses, but I thought Screamadelica was really sensational."

"I was the perfect age for the whole Manchester thing – 13-15 during those years when it was really big, when it peaked with the Inspirals, Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses. Me and Danny [Goffey, Supergrass drummer] met at school, he was two years above me, which was a bit weird ’cos you don’t really tend to cross over years in school. I think he found out I was into music and played a bit of guitar and he’d got a drumkit for Christmas. I was into music and art, not like the village boys who were into starting fights and stuff. I remember going up to Manchester on a bus with Danny to the G-Mex to watch Happy Mondays with the Inspirals supporting, which was amazing."

"like to think of this as Lennon and Elvis, you know what I mean? Lennon wouldn’t have been there without Elvis and I wouldn’t be here without The Stone Roses. Ian Brown as a frontman had the look and he was cool as fuck. He was my Elvis. The first time I saw them, that was it! I thought, “I want that!” I’d heard our kid play ‘Sally Cinnamon’ round the house and I went to see them just before the album came out and it was like, “This is it, man! This is the next fucking step!” It was like growing up a bit and you’re thinking, “This is the band that’s going to guide me to chicks and being a cool young man.” You know what I mean? This was the album that was going to carry me through. They were my guiding star."

"I heard about them initially via the NME, and Melody Maker– all those great music newspapers that were there back in the day. My best friend was also into them at the same time and we just became strangely obsessed, very quickly. 
 When they first emerged, I was very active in the club scene; I was always going out every night and I just had this incredible connection with that record. That whole scene that came out of Manchester at that time – the Happy Mondays, the Stone Roses – it just blew my mind. It was a sort of brand new sound that really captured my imagination. 

 Every time I hear that record now, I just get flooded with feelings of pure joy and freedom. I became so, so obsessed with Ian Brown that it was bordering on the unhealthy. 

 They're an amazing band and I still have so much love for them. I was lucky enough to meet Mani and Ian over the years, either on television shows or at festivals. I met Mani at this amazing festival in Spain, in Bilbao: I was literally like a love-struck teenager, except I wasn't [laughs], I was an adult. I was so thrilled to meet him and to play on the same festival line-up. 

 It wasn't until much, much later that somebody told me The Stone Roses had actually opened for my very first band – Goodbye Mr Mackenzie – but I had been completely unaware. It felt like great justice that with the success of Garbage that I finally got to be on the same stage and be aware of it at the same time: it felt like an amazing achievement. 

 In some weird turn of events, me and Ian got stuck together backstage in this mad situation – I think it was in Serbia, of all places, during a thunderstorm. The festival that we were all playing had to get postponed until the storm passed. We were all backstage getting drunk together and I could just not believe that that actually happened: I still can't. It just shows you that dreams can come true, so to speak [laughs]."