"When Nick Cave is at his most theatrical the level of interest most people have in him is just elevated. You can feel what they were drinking, you can taste it in the air, you understand what drugs they're on and it's just from sound. It takes a lot to put the other senses into music, and he does it better than anyone else I've ever heard. He's great at every aspect of being Nick Cave, but I think when he's fully involved in story telling he's quite probably the best frontman there is. He really becomes those characters, he's able to live and breathe those people in the way only an author can; he understands them on a different level. This record has some of my favourite lyrics of all time. It's got 'Where The Wild Roses Grow' with Kylie Minogue which is a beautiful ballad, this amazing moment between one of the greatest pop stars of all time and one of the greatest songwriters of all time. It's this mashup that should never have happened, but the world's definitely a better place that it did. I got into Nick Cave late, later than I'd like to admit, when I was in my late 20s. I knew about him before, I'd heard things, but I heard this record when I was living in New York. I wasn't in Gallows any more, I was just painting, and I went record shopping one day. I was buying some Daniel Johnston records but the guy in the shop had a copy of Murder Ballads and I, like a fucking idiot, casually asked 'is this good?' He just said, 'Are you joking? Of course it's good!' So I went back home, listened to my Daniel Johnston records, made some food, then later that night put it on and was like 'holy shit!' and bought every other Nick Cave record they had."

"My dad used to sing Sinatra songs all the time around the house. He used also sing Burt Bacharach and different things like that. And you grow up with your parents' music whether you want to or not. But in a bizarre way, my dad was one of those guys who would just constantly sing – I don't mean while shopping in the Co-Op or whatever – but he would just sing at home all the time. Actually, I just did a thing with Ronnie Scott's big band at Cheltenham Jazz Festival the other week and I remember those songs the way my dad sang them which means I remember them with completely wrong lyrics – he didn't know the actual words! He used to that with lots of things – he'd sing 'Jerusalem' with the line "and did those feet, those WHACKING great feet" for some reason! I'm sure a lot of dads and mums used to do it. This particular album was produced by Quincy Jones and features the Count Basie orchestra. So it's meant to have been a golden era of Sinatra doing the Vegas years because it was still in the part when songs were arranged with a big band and orchestra. But then you remember Quincy Jones produced Michael Jackson – so there's a weird connection there. I used to speak to jazzers about songs we were doing and they would ask 'are we doing the Sands version?' – I needed to find out what that actually meant! But it's just amazing to be in that room for a second. Some of that – some of the Elvis in Vegas stuff too – becomes mythology. A lifestyle. Like Elton John or Celine Dion although I don't mean that in a derogatory way. And I certainly don't think it's derogatory now. It affords people to put on a show they couldn't possibly do anywhere else. they can afford to go completely over the top with it. Would I like a Vegas period? I'd LOVE a Vegas period! Bring it on! I don't think I have the material – I've seen Elton do these massive three hour stint gigs but he has the songs to back them up. I just don't think I've got that material. Although maybe I could do something in Vegas though…"


"They were a black punk band from America. I love this record because it's kind of… erudite in its expression but it's fucking brutal. It's razor sharp. It's also gloriously anarchic. It's kind of punk but it's got real rock & roll lineage to it. The titles are brilliant: there's one called 'Politicians In My Eyes', another one called 'Rock-N-Roll Victim', 'Let The World Turn', 'You're A Prisoner'. It's just a real lost classic, and it's got real power. I can't remember if they're from Detroit or not - it would make sense, because so much has come out of Detroit - but it's one of those records I've just picked up and been astounded by it. I was always really good at picking up stuff in the margins of punk history, but I'd never heard anything about this band, and I love the idea that there's still stuff out there that's going to get credit after its time; that people who didn't get credit in their lifetime eventually get it if they're good enough. You can tell this band could have gone on to be utterly amazing; there's an articulacy there, a brutality there, a real rock & roll lineage, but a little off-kilter jazz edge to little bits of the playing. And the cover's absolutely lovely, it's almost like art deco Buck Rogers. It's just one of those records that's a little surprise in life; to stay in love with music, you need to have those little surprises, something that's been locked in a vault and it comes at you and it's such a surprise. And if you're ready to take on those surprises, it just shows you're still in love with the romance of music, that something's going to hit you in the middle of the eyes. And that's what this record did to me two years ago. I found it in Spillers in Cardiff, which was good because I really don't engage in the digital world - not through any kind of arch Ludditeness or anything, I just can't be arsed. So I listen to lots of radio and read lots of press and that's how I get my new records. That's why I love going to Spillers; sometimes there'll just be that bit of advice behind the counter. "Why don't you try this?" I just love that moment."