I was a bit too young to appreciate the enormity of what was happening in the Sixties but I’ve always had the awareness of how much the sixties have affected my life and I want to have a track to evoke that hidden time. And thank you for the days I spent living near Muswell Hillbilly. There’s still an echo of something on a sunny afternoon.

I’m not a huge Simon and Garfunkel fan but there’s just something about this version from the concert in Central Park in 1981. Paul Simon’s harmonising is amazing. I would have loved to have been there. It’s simply beautiful then and now.

This finally eased out David Bowie in my tracks to take to the island (I can’t believe it). One of the first singles I ever bought was Jeepster. I was so excited to get it home and put it on the turntable. But then I listened to the B side. “I could have burned your fate in the sand”. Alright then.

Life has been up and down, from darkest days to the light of my beautiful son being born. But considering everything I see that I have to agree with Marc. Life is in fact, a gas.

I reached London in 1976. This absolutely blew away everything that had happened before. It’s got everything from punk that was mindblowing. Never Mind the Bollocks and Jamie Reid’s artwork changed my whole outlook on things and still do.

“I’m looking over the wall and they’re looking at me”. Genius.

This is just a modern classic. Love the video too. I’ll find a big rock on the beach and play air guitar to this all day long. Proper song.

One of my two all time favourite singers. I think this song is the best she did.
Sinéad O’Connor always reminds me of someone I spent a very important part of my life with.

Pretty much my favourite singer ever. This track was playing on my iPod the night I took a bus back to Athens through a surprisingly industrial landscape after visiting my future partner. The brass section, more reminiscent of a northern colliery band and a sultry Athenian night is one of those exquisitely wonderful but unlikely mixes.

After that visit I knew. She held out for at least a couple of years after that. But I knew. This track always reminds me of why life’s a gas.

This the track that I’ve carried with me on my iPod or phone all over the world. I’ve listened to this on the beach in Barcelona (hi Lars), in the mountains and the cities of China, in Athens, London and Berlin and so many other places. It’s my “forward into the future” track and I have to have it with me on a desert island. There’s no words so I have to make up the story myself every time.