So often, the singer is the sound of the record. People think they can cover anything, but the whole voice is the thing that's unrepeatable.

I thought, I'm in my late 50s now, am I ever gonna get the chance to do another album again?

My next record I really just want it to be a collection of great songs, classic songs in a way.

The way the business things work in Russia is you have to meet people, you have to go through a certain amount of etiquette and business things are done just simply by a shake of the hand and whether they like you or not.

I was quite naïve, a boy from Southport. When I went to art college in Leeds, I lived in a basement flat, and I heard clunking on the stairs all night, and I thought it was just nurses going to work on the night shift at the local hospital! Then I found out it was all working girls upstairs. I suppose I came from a protected background and had my eyes opened wide by that side of city life.

What was great about the 80s was that you still had record companies who would get behind developing you as an artist. You had these bonkers heads of department and A&R people who, even after a flop album, would let you make another one.

There's no such thing as 'I can't do it'.