"Nobody knows about Melanie in America really, and you know, I only just realised that she was such a big influence on me. The way she sings, absolutely. People would be like, 'What are your influences?', and they would compare me to Janis, but that's because they don't know Melanie. 'Lay Down'? It gives me chills. I got to cover that with Mark Ronson and his band, it was one of the best moments of my fucking life. 'Animal Crackers'? She's so hilarious. I have this haircut because I wanted to look like her on the cover of Gather Me. And I think one of the most beautiful songs in the fucking world, especially as someone who plays music, is 'Look What They've Done To My Song Ma'. That's one of my favourites. I love her so much. But of all her album I couldn't take Photograph off. See, I could have chosen 13 Melanie records! I just had to pick one, so I picked Photograph. 'Cyclone' is such a big song for me. I found it at a yard sale, or maybe a Good Will, but I got it second-hand and it was already really worn out and that's where I started getting really deep and I would look for her everywhere. A lot of times she was on compilations or Greatest Hits compilations, and it would be so weird, because apart from 'Brand New Key', you didn't hear her on the radio, and you'd think, where was this a hit? I would look for her everywhere. And the thing is, you had to work so hard to get a jam back then. Now you can just Google it up, but that's what started me onto Melanie, my mom singing 'Brand New Key' to me and then finding the record and going from there. Every time, if I looked hard, I would find one of her records."

"Diamond Dogs was another one from my Dad’s record collection. That record and Ziggy Stardust had a huge impact on me, I liked the glam aspect and the production was so cool. I liked the cover of Diamond Dogs, with the half-dog, half-man and I listened to “Rebel Rebel” - which I loved - but then I got into ‘We Are the Dead’ and that was some next-level shit. That song showed me some of the theatrics and drama that you could do with music and how you could create such a mood. It’s not just about plugging in the guitar and singing a song, it’s also about the production work and choosing the right instrument for the purpose. “We Are the Dead” literally scared me to death as well, I’d put it on just to torture myself because it was so creepy. Diamond Dogs is such a theatrical record. It’s so diverse and dramatic. It changes throughout the record and every song sounds different - it’s like a storybook or something. It had a gatefold sleeve that the lyrics were printed out on and that was the kind of shit that I loved to look at and read while he sang. Bowie’s my hero and I’ve cited him in every interview I’ve ever done. I met him once when I was just starting out on Virgin Records. I was backstage with my manager and they arranged for this meeting, he came out and sat with me, we spoke about being on the same label and me having a record coming out. It was so cool, it was like meeting a president or something, he was still so otherworldly and unattainable. It was very brief, and it was very formal. I maybe could have met him in different circumstances at some point along the line, but I’m glad I didn’t. He remains this ever-changing mythical character. I love him."

"This is from Rock 'n' Roll Animal, which I don’t listen to anymore and haven’t for years. I prefer to listen to - and really enjoy - other versions of ‘Sweet Jane’ much more. This has the big dual-electric guitar thing going on, and a long intro before he comes onstage. You can hear the audience respond after it’s gone on for several minutes and gone through all this sort of classic rock sounding stuff, which I liked a little bit when I first heard it, but now it doesn’t really speak to me. I’m remembering it because he’s coming onstage and the way he starts singing. I think this was first album that I had, or got out of a library, that I was able to listen to a bunch of times. I listened to it a lot of times and I really liked the song. Shortly after that, the brother I stayed with in New York City, who took me to the Johnny Thunders show, had actually been at the concert that they recorded Lou Reed’s Rock 'n' Roll Animal. He and friends were there, they were way in the back. They did two shows, two sets, with two audiences. For the next one they didn’t have all the seats filled in the front, so my brother and his friends got invited to be up front for the second show, so one of those crowd people screaming or yelling could have been him. He was there at the show and that was a little extra or bonus I found out after the fact. Speaking of that, it’s possible that I got a lot of stuff out of a library and kept checking things out, he would give me some albums for Christmas or a birthday, so it’s possible that that one came from him as well - which sort of makes sense if he was there at that concert!"