"It was a left turn within the punk rock scene, it was weird and sort of violent and real. It was in your face and as real as any rock band had been and that record got me through some shit. We all have a record that got us through a break-up or that you listened to when you’re 18 and you think everything’s going to hell and not going to last, and that record got me through that. Actually the first gig I ever did was opening for Black Flag when I was 14, but it was when Ron Reyes was the singer, so I’d followed them closely for a long time – well three years and three years is a long time when you’re 18. But that was the record that fortified it."

"I was the perfect age for the whole Manchester thing – 13-15 during those years when it was really big, when it peaked with the Inspirals, Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses. Me and Danny [Goffey, Supergrass drummer] met at school, he was two years above me, which was a bit weird ’cos you don’t really tend to cross over years in school. I think he found out I was into music and played a bit of guitar and he’d got a drumkit for Christmas. I was into music and art, not like the village boys who were into starting fights and stuff. I remember going up to Manchester on a bus with Danny to the G-Mex to watch Happy Mondays with the Inspirals supporting, which was amazing."

"This is referenced in my song 'I'm An Outlaw': "...an outlaw, burned from vinyl, dimed from cans, peaked to the dome". And that's some crazy, psychedelic, synth-y, weird funk. No offence to Miles, you know, unfortunately he's not with us, but fortunately he's not, because he's the weakest link on that record. At first he's awesome, and then some of his tone, it goes down south once in a while, but all the players, like John McLaughlin and the synth players, and if you listen to the record, especially in headphones, it's all - my theory is - going through modular synthesisers, all the percussion is going through envelope filters, but it's also panning non-stop. If you listen, it's unreal. If you crank it in headphones, it's full speed ahead!"

"As counterweight to the weird and eerie elements in many of the books I have selected I propose the sweet and kind Summer Book. Tove Jansson’s fictionalized memoir about the summers she spent as a girl with her grandmother on a tiny island in the archipelago off Finland’s south coast is a wonderful ode to the curiosity of childhood and the wisdom of old age. In a precise, lyrical language that never gives in to easy sentiments Jansson allows us to take part in the summer days with the girl and the grandmother as one is discovering nature for the first time and the other is contemplating its vulnerability. It is sunshine in the shape of a book — for the shadowy part of Jansson’s oeuvre one must look to her children stories about the Moomins."