"My abiding memory really, was spending several months in Ireland in a big country mansion, post-Welcome To The Pleasuredome, and attempting to write songs for the Liverpool album while travelling the world with Frankie and things. We were in the house of the King of Leinster, who'd decided to rent it out to pop groups who needed rehearsal space - I think the Thompson Twins had been there previously - and Paul [Rutherford, Frankie singer], who I think is an even bigger Kate Bush fan than me, brought the album and it never left the turntable. We knew that Julian Mendelsohn, who'd mixed 'Relax' and 'Two Tribes', had been involved in it. It just stayed on the turntable for what seemed like months, over and over and over again. Almost to its detriment in a way. It's just an incredible record. What more you can say?"

"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."

"Mohair Sam' was one of the tracks on it - I recorded it on my first album because of hearing him do it. But I liked him before that - 'Lonely Weekends' was the first one I heard him sing. Heard it on the radio, on the BBC - some people had condemned the BBC because they didn't play enough of this or enough of that but at least you would get a smidgen of things coming through. I'd be getting records then from Spillers in Cardiff, but there was a shop in Pontypridd which was more local, called Freddy Feys, and I would get a lot of stuff in there. On another album later on, I did the song that was on The Many New Sides... called 'Field of Yellow Daisies' that his wife wrote, which I learned later - when I met him, he said “Thanks for recording that.""

"The aural equivalent of a Tom of Finland tattoo, this gayest possible album is dedicated to Truman Capote. With no electronics, prominent guitars or snare drums, its genre is kept vague, so there are sort-of accordion chanties and sort-of disco hits whose lead instrument is yang t'chin (Chinese zither). Released in 1986 only two years after the breakup of Soft Cell, this was Marc's third solo album (fifth if you count Marc & the Mambas), on top of which he was releasing 12" EPs longer than many albums, burning his crimson candle at both ends with, according to his memoir, a £26,000 monthly party habit. The literate lyrics are populated by hustlers, boxers, and Yma Sumac, and set in rundown motels, downtown Barcelona, and "the backrooms where soiled goods are sold." Makes a great gift for a confused teenager, along with some Jean Genet and John Rechy."

"Sorry to pick this. Just saying the title's enough, really, isn't it? I know it's really obvious, but it's such a masterpiece. 

It's been strangely hard picking my albums for this, as lots of things don't resonate with me now like they used to when I was younger. I've been listening a lot more to classical and choral music in the last year, for example, but this fits in with that, because this is sacred music. It's music that transcends genre. Every track is profoundly beautiful – and I say that having liked Talk Talk before this, too. I remember the first album coming out at the same time as Duran Duran's Rio, and people comparing them, then hearing The Colour Of Spring. 'Life's What You Make It' was a big song when I was at sixth form. But this album… this is a bigger thing. I still love it so much.
"

"I know a lot of people aren’t into Tango In The Night, but I think that’s because the production is really of-the-time, it’s very 80s sounding and I think it’s a CD-aware album. It’s not mastered in the same way that they used to do when cutting for vinyl. But there are some really amazing songs on it and I think that if it had been made in the 70s it would have been as big as Rumours. The 70s is all warm snares, and just duller and warmer in general. And there’s a lot more synthesizer work on Tango..., and I just think the songs are what count and they are easily up there. I think the synths are part of what has poisoned people’s minds to this particular album. Obviously Rumours is an all-time golden classic as well."

"When I left school, The Wall was the pothead’s album. Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here I maybe overplayed but The Wall I could never get tired of. That track ‘Nobody Home’ just brings back so many memories for me. After leaving school, I just used to go round my mates house, skin up, and we’d listen to this. Happy, carefree days. I met Dave Gilmour once at an industry thing and I think I pissed him off. I said to him, 'Dave, I think The Wall is your best album but my wife won’t have it, she prefers listening to Meddle.' And he said, 'Well, clearly your wife has impeccable taste where you have little. I suggest you listen to her.' I was like, 'What the fuck are you talking about? She hasn’t got a clue! Get out of it…'"