“they told us that Home Taping was Killing Music” – hah!

When I was 14 I was given a tape of REM and The Church. I bought everything REM did for the next 15 years and saw them live over and over.

The Church have done even better out of me. Everything they’ve done, and it’s still coming. I haven’t missed a UK gig in over 20 years.

In 1989 I was given a tape of Cowboy Junkies. Like the Church, I’m still buying everything, and they’re the only two bands I’ve ever travelled abroad to see cos the UK dates just weren’t enough.

As you find with Byrne, both bands have done some stuff I listen to less than others, but they’ve never let me down and manage to have a vast and varied landscape of work that’s all their own. So consistent, and over such a big stretch of time, that they’ve become part of who I am.

Imagine if I’d never had home tapes from sharp friends and had to pick the best out of the radio instead. I’d have either had a huge void or else forced myself to get into some shit like Ultravox on the grounds that at least it was a world apart from Owen Paul.

no wonder you ended up liking Chris De Burgh.