There were very few real folk singers you know, though I liked Dominic Behan a bit and there was some good stuff to be heard in Liverpool. Just occasionally you hear very old records on the radio or TV of real workers in Ireland or somewhere singing these songs and the power of them is fantastic.

I didn't come after Elvis and Dylan, I've been around always. But if I see or meet a great artist, I love 'em.

I enjoyed it when football crowds in the early days would sing 'All together now' - that was another one. I was also pleased when the movement in America took up 'Give peace a chance' because I had written it with that in mind really.

I hope someday you will join us and the world will live as one.

Tell the truth and make it rhyme

Before many black singers were still labouring under that problem of God; it was often 'God will save us'. But right through the blacks were singing directly and immediately about their pain and also about sex, which is why I like it.

After The Beatles came on the scene everyone started putting on a Liverpudlian accent.