7. The Velvet UndergroundThe Velvet Underground & Nico
I was about 16. We had this great art room in school and an absolutely brilliant teacher, Bob White. This art room was really well equipped with dark rooms and screen printing and painting. Bob was quite happy for us to play records. If you were in there, you could hear what other people were putting on. Somebody older than me was hip and put on Velvet Underground & Nico. That was just so influential. I often think that the ones that have lasted really well for me are songs like ‘Sunday Morning’, some of the kind of quieter, more reflective ones.
Did you ever meet Lou Reed or John Cale?
John Cale did three tracks with The Jesus Lizard as a sort of test to see if they got on with each other. And they didn’t. They didn’t like it and stopped and got me. So I redid those and the rest of Blue. It was great, I love those guys. And then, strangely, John Cale tried to pick up my wife. But we probably shouldn’t go there!
