It was quite nice meeting up because we went through a lot together and we haven't really seen each much other to communicate one to one for quite a long time.

Being a singer now I have to get all fussy... I must have my ginger and lemon and all that.

I've always looked at shoes as being immensely beautiful things.

You know Manchester is always a bit of a hard place for people coming from London, just with all the history. Manchester has this immensely huge and healthy history musically.

There's a focus that hasn't been there for ages and ages and some American bands are sounding quite English like they did in the late 70s and early 80s.

With my daughter, who at the time was one, my domestic life needed to take more precedent and really with my own self I needed to develop quite a bit more. So that put Blur down the list of priorities quite a lot by the time I came to thinking about it.

I love the magic of the studio.