What’s your favourite album and song ever?
It used to be Exile on Main Street and ‘Shine A Light’, but if I really like something I tend to listen to it until I can’t bear it any more. I find you can get tired of almost anything, except perhaps ‘Rockaway Beach’ by The Ramones.

What was the best year for music?
I’ll have to skip this one. I haven’t been a reliable witness since about 1989.

What is your earliest musical memory?
I had the ‘Hey Jude’ single when I was four or five, which I played on a little toy phonograph. I remember the day I first put on the B-side, which was ‘Revolution’, and it scaring the shit out of me. I didn’t play any records for a while after that.

Is there any particular album or song you never want to hear again in your life?
Probably, but I can’t think of one. My son says I should put “anything by Mika” but I have no quarrel with Mika.

If you could go back in time which musical figure would you like to meet?
Hank Williams.

Who would you put in your fantasy band?
I don’t care who’s in it, as long as I am the front man.

What is the best concert you have ever been to?
I once saw Billy Bragg (pictured) play a little bar in Burlington, Vermont, during a blizzard. It must have been about 1985. Only 30 or 40 people braved the snow, and Bragg clearly had no idea where he was, but he put on a fantastic show - just him and his guitar, and his manager sitting at a table in the front.

What was the first concert you ever went to?
I saw a prog-rock band called The Good Rats play my high school auditorium when I was, I think, 15. I remember nothing about it.

What was the last concert you went to?
I took two of my kids to the Latitude festival last summer. The highlight was probably Herman Dune’s Saturday afternoon set, but I screwed up my back putting up our tent and spent a lot of the weekend zonked on borrowed painkillers.

CD, Vinyl or MP3?
Cassette tape.

John or Paul?
John.

East Coast or West Coast?
East.

Dylan or Elvis?
Elvis.