"Any Velvets album can be the best Velvets album. Any Velvets album can be the best album by anyone. You can't make a wrong choice. Max’s Kansas City is today's winner because it has the best story. It has multiple stories. It's a play. It's not an album. Layered narratives are fighting for your attention. First, there’s the stories in Lou’s songs: wastrels, vagabonds and dealers. Second, there’s the story of this being the Velvet’s last gig with Lou. He’s tired and listless between the songs; he knows it’s over. “This is a song about, ooh when you've done something so sad, and you wake up the next day, and you remember it. Not to sound grim or anything. Just once in a while, you have one of those days. I seem to have them nearly every day.” There’s the story of the band itself at this point – no Cale, no Nico, no Tucker. They don’t sound like the Velvets anymore. New drummer Billy Yule sounds like he’s never heard Mo Tucker and never intends to. Then there’s this strange story in the foreground. The show is an official bootleg recorded by Brigid Polk who is sitting next to Jim Carroll. They sound like they’re having a terrible night and he is an arse. He makes her get him Pernod from the downstairs bar and talks over the band about songs he doesn’t know. It’s all perfect because nothing is remotely perfect. I go out on this lousy date with Brigid and Jim over and over again."

"Do you know that film Empire Records? It's got Liv Tyler and Renée Zellweger in it and it's a very 90s’ coming-of-age movie about these kids who work in a record shop. I used to be completely obsessed with it, I wanted to be Liv Tyler and I wanted to have her fluffy jumper. They used to put loads of sugar in their coffee and when I was fifteen and starting to make coffee for the first time, I used to put ten sugars in it, because that was what the kids in Empire Records did! This song comes on at the end, just as all the characters are dancing together. It’s so lifting and so fresh. There are no other songs in the world where an accordion sounds so good. “I've listened to other songs by The The but I'm much more of a song person than an album person. I'll make playlists and go back again and again to the exact same song. I feel like they've got a couple of other bangers, I can't think what they're called, but 'This is the Day' sounds exactly like what it is. It sounds exactly like what they're singing: ""This is the day when things fall into place!"" “It's also a song that me and Celia really bonded over when we first met. We both realised at the same time how much we love that film and we both have it as our 'wake up in the morning and pull your finger out' song."

"I could have chosen I, II, III, IV, Houses Of The Holy or Physical Graffiti. Not totally sure why I chose this one, but it starts with ‘The Song Remains The Same’ and ends with ‘The Ocean’, so it almost doesn’t matter what’s in the middle! With those bookends, it was always going to be a classic. But of course there are things I like in the middle, or else it would be a shit sandwich. Every time I get on guitar I play ‘Over The Hills And Far Away’. I’m not a fan of ‘The Crunge’. ‘Dancing Days’ is like an early version of ‘Kashmir’ and the album’s got some reggae on there. ‘No Quarter’ is a great thing to wake up in the morning to because it sort of builds and builds and builds and then sort of scares you out of bed. And ‘The Ocean’ is what I always play on the drum kit - I think if anything Led Zeppelin is defining what rock drums are supposed to be. And Jimmy is a god – a golden god! And hands down my favourite guitar player of all time. I could just turn off the sound and watch his fingers I’m that obsessed. He never seems to play the same thing twice when you’re looking at live footage. He’s always raucous and doing battle with his guitar, instead of just commanding it. I like to watch people that don’t have amps that do the work for them."