7. Lou ReedTransformer

Around the same time as The Slits, me and Antonia, when we met, we used to sing ‘Vicious’. We were really little and were all "waaa!", nutty little girls running around, pretty funny – I doubt I’d want to have met us now! – but we thought we were hilarious. We used to listen to Transformer – he’s just extraordinary.

He was just fantastic, just grown up with him, so it’s hard to find a way to describe exactly what he means to me. I found a book of his lyrics and you can read them and he’s just the most extraordinary poet. He’s someone else where you can just sit and read his words as much as you can listen to his songs.

I met him once and he told me he thought I was a pretty good lyricist! It was one of the Leonard Cohen things that we did – we were sitting next to each other watching Antony [Hegarty] and we chatted and he said that. I always consider that quite a big moment in my life.