"It's a huge, very personal, very absorbing rock record. I love it to bits. I heard them on John Peel, he was a big Codeine supporter… I think they were ahead of their time, because if you listen to them stylistically, it doesn't seem anything particularly different, because there's a lot of bands that make slow loud music, but this was incredible and unique. The songs are why they still maintain the interest. It was really moving seeing them at ATP I'll Be Your Mirror, and you can tell the band were quite touched as well. I was a big John Peel fan, and when we started the band it was an ambition to get played on John Peel, it was an ambition to get a Peel Session, so I think that it kind of went from being a fan to seeing him as some kind of way to let the world hear your music. It worked on different levels. Getting to meet him, he was a really wonderful person too. Even a lot of bands before my time, you'd get to hear them because they'd done Peel sessions, those grey 12". It was a seal of approval that the band were worth checking out because they'd got to do a Peel Session. I think he had a big influence on a lot of the bands up here because for a long time no-one really paid much attention to the music in Scotland apart from John Peel. If you got a session with him you got a few hundred pounds which could be used to play some gigs outside Scotland, so he almost acted as an arts fund for supporting Scottish musicians."

"I’ve always espoused this dopey idea that everyone should have one Shakespeare play that they know inside out. Just pick one. For me, it’s Macbeth. I’ve seen countless performances and probably watched most every movie version. (Hey, Scotland, PA, I got your back!). For me, Roman Polanski’s Macbeth is really the greatest of all Macbeths (and would have to be in the running for best Shakespeare film). People often mention how it was Polanski’s first film after the Sharon Tate murder or how Hugh Hefner was a producer. Try to get past all the extracurricular stuff and just play’dst (with the English subtitles on, I’d suggest) for the incredible performances, the mastery of Polanski’s cine-aesthetic precision, and a bleakness that feels so relevant today. I love how it’s so true to the play yet also so clearly a Polanski film. It’s harrowing, visceral, and frightening, like all his best work."

"Saul from the Fat Whites has been playing this for me a lot while we made the Insecure Men record together. He told me about this music teacher in Scotland who made a band of his students to play his compositions, and how they made this album. It's magical. When we were working there was a lot of arguing over what we should listen to, but we always agreed on this, everyone's always happy. It's one of those albums that's gone in to the catalogue of records I can listen to when I'm dying and sick. It's so sweet and so beautiful and magical, it doesn't bother me at all, no matter what mood I'm in. I can be overly sensitive, and I don't always want to hear what someone's DJing, but if I'm trying to relax I can always put this on and find inner peace."

"It closely mirrors Low by Bowie. It took the format of the really busy first side and really melancholic b-side and took it to the next level grim. Grim factor 20. But it's a wonderful record and a very unique sounding record. I remember reading some things about how it was recorded, they didn't really use any amps. They just plugged straight into the desk and replayed it through speakers and recorded it again, which is mental. I've been a massive Joy Division fan ever since I started listening to music. It was probably through my sister and all her goth friends. Was she a goth too? Oh yeah! Everyone in Scotland's a goth, Luke, do you not know that? Margaret Thatcher brought such a black cloud over Scotland that there's nothing better to do than sit about drinking cider and listening to the Sisters Of Mercy."

"The Associates were a huge band in Scotland; they certainly had some success in the rest of the world, but they were ours. Certainly when I was growing up I hadn't yet really discovered too many Scottish bands at that point – this was to change of course but these were one of the first I discovered. 
 
 The Associates struck me because I was aware that they were Scottish after I saw them on Top of the Pops and suddenly I made this connection between, 'Oh, you can be from Scotland, where there's no music industry, and be successful. You can get on Top of the Pops, you can be heard by an audience'. It was just a peculiar lesson and a sudden revelation for me of the possibilities that existed for musicians. 

 When you come from a country where back then there was no real established record industry, per se, they stood out. We had a couple of great record labels, you know, 53 & 3rd and Postcard Records and so on, but it was rare to get signed to those two labels, and they were still very small and independent; it was difficult to have the clout of a major London-based record label. 

 The Associates really captured my imagination. I loved them musically and I was really interested in their style. I was obsessed with the 'Gloomy Sunday' cover that Billy Mackenzie did. He had this extraordinary operatic voice; I'd never heard anything like in my life before. 

 I used to go to this club called the Hoochie Coochie Club in Edinburgh, which was big in the game for me, like I spent every weekend at this club. I was introduced to Billy Mackenzie and we really hit it off; I just was kind of obsessed by him. I just thought he was brilliant and really funny, irreverent, rebellious, and fascinating with the voice of an angel. He was so tortured and he had such a sad story in the end. 

 When I heard that he had taken his own life, I was so gutted: the whole of Scotland felt like they had lost a son. He had so much to give – he wasn't just sort of average, he wasn't an averagely successful musician: he was this extraordinary talent, a great interpreter and, again, a great communicator. He was able to make his own brilliant music but to also re-interpret classic songs that had been done by the greats and still he brought something of his own to that. 

 I think 'Gloomy Sunday' by The Associates is by far the greatest version of 'Gloomy Sunday' I've ever heard, and I've heard some amazing versions, like the one by by Sinéad O'Connor or Billie Holiday, but he brings something really special to that.
 
The Associates helped build Scotland's musical confidence to then start really exploring the music scene on its own terms, as opposed to going through London."