On my wedding day. I didn't want a natural, blushing-bride look - I had a full-on hairdo and red lips. I thought it would be disingenuous to do the whole virginal look, so even though I had the white dress, I had pink net underneath.

A lot of what inspired many musicians is celebrating differences, and people relate to that - more people feel like the unpopular, freaky one than the one in the in-crowd.

Philately is normally a boys' hobby but for some reason it was in vogue at my junior school. Between the ages of eight and ten I collected avidly. I'd pore over my Stanley Gibbons book, obsessively checking my collection's value. I always hoped I'd stumble across a really valuable one, a Penny Black or an Inverted Jenny, but it wasn't to be.

The X Factor' is great entertainment, but it doesn't prepare people for getting chewed up and spat out by the music industry.

You learn that, when your children are all right, everything is right in the world.

I've been DJing a little bit, so you get used to the fact that music sounds brilliant when it's loud.

I'm someone who has always been quite clear about what I like. In the studio, I'm not a control freak but I know what I want.