"This was the first record of his that I liked. I think it's really aggressive, in a good way, and hard. I always associated with Michael Jackson with all the Thriller stuff, which I didn't really like, but I thought this was a real step out from that safe zone that he'd been in. I'm not a Michael Jackson expert, but this is one of those records that you have to play really really loudly. The production on it is amazing. Apparently we did one of those award ceremonies, what are they called in the UK? The Brits. That's it. I was there with Alison [Moyet, Yazoo vocalist] and he was there and I don't really remember, because I was into not being starstruck, and Alison saw him and she leapt over the security guards and gave Michael Jackson a massive kiss, it was really funny. All the security guys were looking on going, "What the fuck was that?' I think there's a picture of us with all these really famous people like Paul McCartney, all lined up looking like geeks. I guess Dangerous was the closest he got, not to my style of production, but a more synthetic sound."

"Tom Waits really brings a lot of showbiz into his records. It’s in there in the actual songwriting. He knows how to strip things down and get to some skeletal place that’s really strong. He’s trying to be true to his Jazz and his Blues. That is to be admired. There’s a lot of the textures you don’t hear so much. All that vocabulary is really seductive. I think that he’s a good songwriter whatever record you talk about of his. It’s not because there’s some fucking guy playing a saw. It’s like the Bruce Springsteen thing. It’s stripped down, universal, folky bluesy stuff. He’s trying to say: “You guys think you can change things overnight. Forget the new thing. What about Django Reinhart? Son House?” It’s like the Grand Duchy thing. People get obsessed with our production like, “What’s the new story?” It’s admirable when people say: “What about 1949, man?!” At first, I heard a cool White Stripes record and thought: “Who do you think you are, Robert Johnson?” And I get jealous. Fucking A! man. It’s like primal Led Zeppelin or something. But at the end of the day, I always end up respecting Jack White. [Black does an impression of the 'Seven Nation Army' riff.] Jack White has some believability."

"John Barry is probably my number one, I got him to play Meltdown when I did that. I was trying to get him to play more obscure stuff from his catalogue but he wasn't into it at that point in his life. I like this album because you've got his soundtrack stuff and then you've got songs like 'Old Man Willow' that sound like Broadcast. Soundtracks don't always work as albums because they tend to repeat the theme so much that they're not that exciting to listen to, but this one doesn't do that. I think there's one song I'm not that bothered of, 'He Quit Me' at the end of side one, but it just works as an album. There was a record shop in Sheffield called Rare & Racey that only closed down a couple of years ago, you could get pretty cheap second hand records and I picked this up there and played it to death. It probably did have an influence on Pulp, I really liked the sound of it. It's not so much on this record but he used a dulcimer on The Ipcress Files soundtrack, and that definitely influenced the Pulp song 'I Spy', there was a definite attempt to make it sound like that in the background. "

"The album this song is on – A Girl Called Dusty – was in that pile of records that my friend's dad gave to me and that was the first I'd ever heard of her. I love the key change: it sounds really sad but really hopeful at the same time, it gives me a lot of feelings. I used to listen to this album obsessively. I'd sit and listen and while I was listening I'd type out the lyrics and listen again and try to dissect everything in the music and work out how it sounded like that. How it sounded so good – where each tambourine hit was in every bar, where the key change comes in and why that feels so good and whether the key change goes up or goes down. I got really analytical and lame about it. I just really wanted to understand why it was so good! It’s just as incredible as “Walk On By” and those other Burt Bacharach songs – they're all so emotional! I don't think I have listened to the Gene Putney version, or maybe it's something I've heard and not really noticed, I don't know. If it was on the radio I’ve probably heard it. It’s the Dusty version that I have in my heart."