The special relationship between the region and a regional celebrity means that people feel that they have a special investment in you.

I’ll just say one word: Icarus. If you get it, great. If you don’t, that’s fine too. But you should probably read more.

Jazz is the last refuge of the untalented. Jazz musicians enjoy themselves more than anyone listening to them does.

Every band needs it's own special chemistry. And Bez was a very good chemist.

I'm a minor player in my own life story.

Most of all, I love Manchester. The crumbling warehouses, the railway arches, the cheap abundant drugs. That's what did it in the end. Not the money, not the music, not even the guns. That is my heroic flaw: my excess of civic pride.

I've been a minor celebrity since I was 23 years old.