"My Dad also turned me onto The Stooges and their record Fun House. “Down on the Street” was another one of those songs that had me mouth agape, drooling and not knowing what I was listening to exactly. It was like sound effects. He was making a sound from that guitar - that reverb on that riff is the sweetest reverb in Rock and Roll history - and Iggy is singing through an amp which is all fucked up and distorted. “Down on the Street” is something that’s strange and I like it that way. It’s not something I analyse or geek out on, it makes you feel a certain way and makes everything tougher and cooler. Talk about swagger, that song is the epitome of swagger. It’s like performance art. My Dad turned me onto them but listening to bands like The Damned and Nirvana led me back to them. I’m always coming back to that record, it’s so raw and so punk, it’s a masterpiece. Fun House is fucking incredible, song after song too. It’s unrelenting until the end, finally, you get a nice long jam. I’ve always been interested in whatever Iggy does. He’s one of those real freaks, he’s a true, true artist, who feels his way through life and I like that. It’s one of those things, but I wish I was in that band. I would have loved to have been in that band!"

"I never got into the ‘Celebration Of The Lizard’ stuff, and I’m still not mad on it. In the minibus on early Bunnymen tours we’d play a lot of Doors, and I got into it. I think they wrote some of the best three-minute pop songs ever. Robby Krieger came up with some of their best pop songs. Even though I prefer the Velvets as a group, The Doors are the most perfect and compatible four musicians in the history of time. The stuff they were doing was unbelievable. Even some of the madder stuff I can handle. If you listen to the musicianship, Ray Manzarek’s keyboard playing is so recognisable from just being a bluesy player, and it never gets on your wick. Some keyboard playing you’re like, "oh, fuck off". The band had the best drummer, keyboardist, guitarist and frontman – and it never got muso. Morrison looked incredible. If he was alive today he’d still be just as good, not so mysterious perhaps, but more of an Allen Ginsberg or Nick Nolte, swatting flies from his face on Venice Beach with a bevvy in his hand. He’d still be at it. And therefore, a heroic figure, looking like he’d been up for three weeks growing the world’s largest beard. I love the way ‘Peace Frog’ runs into ‘Blue Sunday’. The singing was incredible. I just don’t understand how The Doors weren’t even bigger."

"Again, I love absolute everything that Ronnie did, from Elf to Sabbath, but it's his voice that drew me to this record because it's so magical and so unique. He was a very accomplished all-round musician though. When you look at his body of work it's just tremendous, but this is certainly one of his best. I love singers that mean what they're singing and have power behind them, and Ronnie meant it. This album is proof that you don't always need to just scream your tits off to make a point. The title track is the standout song on this album for me. If you look at any artist who has had the grace and fortune to be successful for a long period of time there are certain songs that stand out even on greatest hits compilations, but I own a Dio compilation and every song on it is as good as the last. I was involved in a tribute record after Ronnie's death to raise money for his charity. It was a great thing to do, and there were so many talented people involved in it. It just proved that everybody loved Ronnie. Not only did he create some amazing music, but he was a fantastic human being. People were lining up to do that record and by the time I agreed there weren't that many songs left to choose from."

"This is just double bass, drums and some kind of keyboard at some point. I chose this album for the opening track. The rest of the album is alright, but it sounds a bit dated. The opening track though is great. The start with the saxophone, or whatever it is, is quite dark, and then it teases with the synths. I used to have it on and think, ""Oh, this is fucking great."" This came out in 1996. I was living with a guy who bought it. I would have never have bought it but he was a bit of a fashionista, you know. I was living in Nottingham. I had split up with my girlfriend and was lodging with this guy. He bought it and I got really into it, this album and Photek, which I chose as well. They started to get my mind thinking about electronica, although Red Snapper was essentially a live act, to me it sounded like electronica, all instrumental. He asked me to do some singing for him, the guy from Red Snapper. But I couldn't do it. He wanted me to do one song and I said I could do it, and then he said ideally he wanted me to do two and I was like, ""Hold on, come on."" I just didn't have the time, I said I'd have to let him down. Though the stuff he sent me over was quite good."

"I had that record for a long time and didn't pay much attention to it. I turned Jesse onto it. He's since tried to get it, and it's like $20, but I found it in a bin for like $4, $6. I didn't pay much attention to it, but then once I got deep into him - it's an incredible performance around the same time. The first song on there, 'Healing Song', does that very similar thing where it's just a couple of chords, but on this one they have two bass players. So they have one guy that's just playing the basic chords, the other one's really walking around it in this spiritual way, and the piano player's incredible, and people are even singing along. It sounds like late '80s or early '90s pop, like I think about this Janet Jackson song, it's a prototype for African-American pop, where it's all these songs, like... It's not like, "Ah man, I love me some Janet Jackson" - that stuff just gets embedded just 'cause you hear it on the radio 24/7, [but] you know that song, 'Escapade'? There's a riff in that song that I play on my guitar as a joke, but it's actually the best riff ever, it's sort of like that: this simple hook, but obviously they take it beyond, because they're all such good players. It's just pop that you can't deny mixed with free spiritualism."