I played with Bob Lind last month which was a real honor. I grew up with my dad playing his records such as ‘Elusive Butterfly’ and ‘Truly Julies Blue’ He is a lovely bloke and his new songs are better than the ones he had hits with in the 60s. [see also Christopher Denny]

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Pete McKee is a Sheffield artist and a top bloke. You see his work in loads of pubs in Sheffield and he paints a lot of local subjects. He has a cartoon way of painting — very simple and pretty unique. He got a bit more famous recently because Noel Gallagher rang him up and asked him to paint a twelve foot guitar. I have one of his works in our front room.

I just worked with British film director Shane Meadows on two videos, which was a real honor. Shane is a great film director. His last film — This Is England [above] — was one of the best I’ve seen in years. [watch the trailer]

The Glass Harmonica is an amazing instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin. I wanted to put one on my new album but time and money ran out. One day I hope to feature one. They are really delicate things and have to be assembled and unassembled every time you move them.

Martin Parr took the photographs for my latest album, Lady’s Bridge, which was a real surprise as he’s a name photographer who does exhibitions rather than album pics. He has a great eye. I love his seaside pictures in particular. There’s no bullshit in what he does. He simply makes ordinary things look beautiful.

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I don’t know a lot about The Sugars but I like what they do. Their sound is quite rockabilly but quite modern — like White Stripes. They put out a couple of indie singles and I’d really like to find some time to work with them.