11. The Blue NileHats
I came to this in 1992 when I was working with Rod Stewart. Suddenly from nowhere he was all [broad Rod Stewart impression] "I’ve heard this song, Trevor, I fucking love it!" And it was ‘The Downtown Lights’ off this album. It’s a pretty random song. It starts "Sometimes I walk away…" then there’s this pause [counts beats] one, two, three, four, five. But Rod wanted to do it straighter so we straightened it up. I met Paul Buchanan up in Scotland years later, and he told me he liked Rod’s version, and I was so pleased. But that whole record – it’s just wonderful. I listened to it a lot in LA and it reminded me of being home. When you’re driving through the valley, in six lanes of traffic, the sun beating down, there’s nothing like a bit of Scots melancholy to get you in a good place. I loved Depeche Mode back then too – playing ‘Personal Jesus’ out loud in the car. Those boys made me proud to be British!
