"That was a big album for us. Just the title alone amused us. From a sonic perspective, this one sounded fantastic. We were drawn to it because of the simplicity and the way it’s put together. It transcended punk, because it was such an important album for a lot of musicians in the 70s that were still hippies. Them boys had our attitude, and we liked that attitude. We liked the Clash, too, but we didn’t really like any of the other punk bands. But this album, even if it didn’t have the surface, the title and all the hype, you’d still think it was a fucking great album. It could have been a Metallica album. We could have played that album. We had a little bit of the anti-establishment attitude in songs like ‘Strong Arm of the Law’, which didn’t get played on radio despite being a single, because it was anti-police. We looked like hippies but we had the attitude of punks. That period was a melting point of different musical styles, and as punk faded we were there to take its place, as was the new romantic movement, which was the other side of the coin – we’d be doing Top of the Pops with Motörhead and Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran."

"I was 16 or 17. I'd just started doing Art A Level at school, and this whole world suddenly just opened up. For ages, I'd been playing the flute, playing the saxophone and skateboarding. That was it really and then all of a sudden, I hit that age. My friend Adrian had a ridiculous record collection. He started making tapes for us, me and another friend of mine, and he introduced us to all that stuff: The Doors, The Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix. I was getting really into art and really into poetry. I discovered Picasso, Matisse, Magritte at the same time. I also discovered surrealism and surrealist poetry, literally in the same couple of years. It was like an explosion in my head. 
'Run Run Run' was just brilliant because it was so chaotic. I'd been into music for a while - I was really into The Police and various bits - but this was just so different. I just loved how nihilistic it was. Really dirty. Luckily my partner's a massive Velvet Underground fan as well, so we stick it on quite often, even now. I still get the same feeling from it when I listen to it now that I did that very first time. I still get that electric charge of energy from it."