I was in college, and very disappointed. I majored in commercial art and interior design for three or four years. At that time, it seemed the thing I really wanted to do, production design, just wasn't available in the U.K., so I turned to music.

I've got a great dislike of reunions. It's a little like trying to go back and relive the best parts of your life, but you can't do it. Nothing is ever the same.

OK, I've had a life of sort of success, some people know who I am but a lot of people don't. I feel the need to change that still.

I'm really still a child of the Forties. I still think about it a lot, about the repercussions of armed conflict. Until 1953 we had rationing. We couldn't buy meat, we couldn't buy pleasurable goods like cigarettes and sweets. I didn't starve - my family were lucky - but I knew what it was like standing in line waiting for foodstuffs.

The rock biz is the low end of the creative world. Faces come and go so fast.

I feel great that I've been given a chance in the golden years of my life. To me, it's the last battle, and I've been given a chance to get stuck in some good armament, some good power, and there's a chance that now I can finish off my working years with my head held high.

I don't think I've ever changed. I am only one person, it's just me. I'm confident and I'm quite happy with who I am, but it's my life and I'll be what I want.