- Unfortunately these days, if you don't get a hit single and your first album doesn't sell one point whatever million you don't get a chance to make your second one. Pop Idol (2001), Popstars (2001), Fame Academy (2002), the rest of them - I don't think they are causing any problems whatsoever - they are coming up with acts that people do like and they are going out and buying a lot of their product.
- [speaking in 2006] There are more important things in my life now to write about than politics.
- [on Sting] Horrible man. Not my cup of tea at all. Rubbish. No edge, no attitude, no nothing.
- [on David Bowie] I like about three records of his. The rest of it's pish.
- We can't stop a baby in Africa from starving to death... but we can afford enough technology and weaponry to blow the world up a million times over.
- [on involvement with Red Wedge] It was the biggest mistake ever for me because once you get involved with those people you see how it's all run. It's more about their egos and it's not about really making a difference.
- In all honesty, I don't know what one song can change.
- The Jam were a good band, however I feel that the Style Council were better. A lot of people I know will disagree with me. Some things we did with The Style Council were misinterpreted or over their heads.
- [on turning down the CBE] It would have been a bit hypocritical for me to accept that, I don't really agree with it. I don't like the royal family, I don't like the establishment, I don't like the civil service. So, it would be utterly pointless me accepting it.
- I had a total belief in The Style Council. I meant every word and felt every action.
- The line "Compose a revolutionary symphony/Then went to bed with a charming young thing" is about The Clash. I was a fan, but I just thought it was really odd how quickly they'd become a standard rock'n'roll band with the leather jackets and the photo opportunities. One minute they were singing 'I'm so bored with the USA' and the next they seemed to be spending most of their fucking time over there. I felt a bit cheated.
- Coming from such an uneducated background, I suppose I'd had quite a blinkered working-class upbringing, and reading books like George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia and Robert Tressell's The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropist had opened up my mind - seeing how the system works and how people are kept down. They gave me a broadly socialist viewpoint and made me reappraise everything.
- If I'd lost my hair, it would've been awful. Nobody could take a bald mod seriously. I was talking to Robert Plant about this and he said the secret to his success was keeping his hair. Led Zeppelin would never have reformed if he or Jimmy Page were bald.
- It wasn't a time to be non partisan. It was too serious a time, too extreme. I wasn't waving the Labour party flag but the socialist red flag that's for sure. In The Jam I didn't want to be a part of any movement. But this was different. Thatcher (Margaret Thatcher) got into power in 1979, and from the Falklands war onwards, that was her wielding her power, the trade unions were being worn down, we had the miners strike, there was mass unemployment, there were all these issues, you had to care and if you didn't you had your head in the sand or didn't give a fuck about anyone but yourself. You couldn't sit on the fence. It was very black and white then. Thatcher was a tyrant, a dictator.
- [on "Wake Up The Nation"] I think the record is great and it deserves a lot more recognition than it's got.
- For me, Wilko [Wilko Johnson] was the first guitar hero of the Seventies. Post-Bolan [Marc Bolan] and Bowie [David Bowie], Britain was a real wasteland, musically. There were all those faded-denim, post-prog stadium bands, and the US rock thing. The Feelgoods cut right through all that. Hearing Down By The Jetty for the first time, at the age of 17, was just what I wanted. I borrowed the LP off a mate and kept hold of it as long as I could. Then I went and bought my own.
- Wilko [Wilko Johnson] may not be as famous as some other guitarists, but he's right up there. And there are a lot of people who'll say the same. I can hear Wilko in lots of places. It's some legacy.
- I'm not scared of the new. For all of my love of the '60s, be it clothes or music, I still wouldn't want to be living in any other time but now. If I had a time machine, maybe I might go back to 1964 to the Flamingo and see Stevie Wonder, but I wouldn't want to stay there. I like the modern.
- [on being told that David Cameron had named Eton Rifles as one of his favorite songs] Which part of it didn't he get?
- I'm a born-again Bowie (David Bowie) freak. The next time he sees me I'll have a fucking great Aladdin Sane flash on me boat race. Every night we'd drive home to London after recording and have Ziggy Stardust on five or six times. Low's one of my favourite records anyway. Whatever gripes I've had about Bowie in the past, Low's been a constant since I bought it in 1977.
- I never, ever wanted to be The Rolling Stones. Bless their hearts, but I don't necessarily want to go on doing the same old thing for the next 10, 20 years... I could see how easy it is to get into that rut, the whole touring mindset.
- You can't live a lie. You have to follow your heart.
- The only time I ever really got into rap was back in the early '90s, and bands like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Gang Starr. Musically, they were really interesting. But when hip-hop acts start sampling Sting or Phil Collins, then I just don't get it at all.
- The Zombies were really unique - they had elements of jazz and classical music in their songs and songwriting. They had a very, very different sound compared to a lot of their contemporaries at the time.
- Getting to No. 1 makes everyone feel better; of course it does. But it's swings and roundabouts with these things. Sometimes you make a great record, and it clicks with people. And other times it passes them by; there's nothing you can do. It's still the same record.
- Right from the start with music, I was like, "I'm just going to do this, and I don't care about anything else." There are certain things you have to give up, even at 13, 14: your Friday and Saturday nights, having a regular girl, lots of things like that. I look at Amy Winehouse, and I think perhaps she just don't want to do it that much.
- I really enjoy playing America. I like the audiences there. It's the home of a lot of music I grew up with.
- I think politicians are so far out of step with what people really want.
- I was such a massive fan of all the '60s pop bands, but if I had to single out one band, it would definitely be The Beatles.
- There have been records I've been really, really pleased with that haven't connected with people. But I felt good about them.
- Pop music was supposed to be a flash in the pan, but here we are 50 years later and it means something to us, and it always will do. It's incredibly important.
- [on Coldplay] I've met Chris Martin and I don't want to slag him off because he's a lovely lad, but his music is too fucking bland.
- I haven't got the internet in my house. I think it's the Devil's Window.
- When I listen to a record, or when I'm making a record, I listen to everything. I listen to the drums, the bass, the voice, the arrangement. I listen to the whole piece as an ensemble.
- [speaking in 1995] How do I feel about being called the Eric Clapton of the 1990s? Bollocks. If my music ever got as laid-back and mellow as his, I'd pack it in. Or shoot myself.
- [on U2] I think they are a load of wallies. If they had long hair and wore headbands, no one would look twice at them.
- [on the prospect of duetting with James Blunt] I'd rather eat my own shit.
- [1977] I don't see any point in going against your own country. All this 'change the world' thing is becoming a bit too trendy. I realise that we're not going to change anything unless it's on a nationwide scale. We'll be voting Conservative at the next election.
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