I liked the idea of writing a song saying I'm happy with who I am, and I don't mind if people think I'm some old git.

Soho has got to be at its centre. It's got such a history for rock, pop, poetry, jazz, writers, all those things, and I think it should be valued as such, and protected as this centre for bohemia.

For me it always comes down to what is a good song and I'm very old fashioned in the way that I like to make songs that have something classic about them whether you can play them with an orchestra or an electro synthesizer or an acoustic guitar.

People always go on about sleaze, but I think it's only a small part of what I write about.

I made a creativity out of that messiness.

Maybe I was a bit harsh on some people. But I was harshest on myself, really.

The albums I did around that time probably wouldn't have been the same without Ecstacy. The first three Soft Cell albums... were all really albums that were just done around Ecstacy and the whole E feeling.