When I was at school, I suppose I was what was considered a nerd. I mean, I was you know, specky and tall and thin and bad teeth and that. So, you know, I wasn't a fanny magnet by any stretch of the imagination. And so... 'Revenge of Supernerd' as the Daily Star put it... I mean, I am considered to be presentable now, I suppose. So that's good. That's a triumph for me.

When I go back to Sheffield, I still get abuse, because this is the thing, like sometimes people think you dress in a certain way for a laugh, but in Sheffield it was a bit more grim than that, because people will actually smack you and beat you up if they think that you look funny. And, so wearing certain clothes isn't a joke in Sheffield, you're taking your life in your hands. So, erm, it still happens to me when I go back, like I went back to Sheffield for Christmas recently and it all comes back to you. You kind of forget, because you can get away with anything in London, but once you get back there, you get off the train, and then you're dodging and trying not to get beaten up before you get home, kind of thing.

Well, people say the camera doesn't lie, or whatever, but the thing is the camera does focus your attention on certain things, [...] if the camera like points at that picture on the wall over there, or something, then your attention is drawn to it. Just being in a room your attention isn't particularly drawn to that picture, but once the camera is pointing at it, you're thinking, oh, that must be significant in some way. And I think it's the same - a little bit the same - in songs, that you will describe things within a situation, like a hole in the carpet, or something like that, and by describing them you give them some significance, and it says something about the way this person is living, or about their state of mind, or something. I think that details are the things that reveal things.

I mean obviously you don't want to make the same record again, because that would be boring, wouldn't it? But then again, you know, the things that you're bothered about in your life don't change that much throughout your life. You know like, I mean people say our record is a lot about sex, which it is. But, you know, I'm interested in it - it's not that I've got a one-track mind - but, I mean, I'm not going to go off it and suddenly get into gardening.

It's that thing of constantly looking for a new angle on things, I suppose. The important things in life have always been the same, I guess, the motivating things. And amongst them I think sex is a really big motivating factor in people's lives. [...] But that doesn't mean everybody should give up writing songs or writing books because the subject matter is always the same. I think you have to try and look for different angles on it somehow and make it interesting again.

Yeah, I've never been very good at chatting up. That was one of the motivating things behind joining a band. I thought, well, if I can get to be semi-famous, then people will come and talk to me rather than me having to go and talk to them. Not just for chatting up purposes, but for general having friends, you know.
I mean sometimes you get people talking to you who you'd rather not have talking to you. And I don't know if it's such a good idea really, because maybe you ought to be more active in choosing your friends, rather then having them choose you. But it has worked in that respect, yeah.
[It depends] whether you like them or not. If you think they're a nightmare, you just say "god, I've got a terrible bowl problem, I've got to run off to the toilet" or whatever, yeah.

You sometimes think - don't you? - that I'm getting a bit decrepit; I wish I was young again. But then I remember... quite recently I went past a queue outside one of them under 18's discos and there was all that kind of nudging and "go on talk to him", "talk to her, she fancies you", "my mate fancies you", and all that kind of stuff. So... oh god, you know, you used to get so wound up. I wouldn't want to go back to being like that.

That's the thing you see, that's the scary thing, you don't know whether you've changed, because if the way your mind works, [the way] you see things has changed, you become blind to it because you only perceive things through your own mind, don't you?

Me father [...] I [have] met him in my life, about 24 years ago was the last time, so obviously we weren't on much of an even footing. But he ran off to Australia to escape maintenance payments and has stayed there ever since.
He is an actor actually. He was in... I don't know if you remember there was a cricketing programme called Bodyline. He was in that, just a small role. 'Man in bar' was, I think, his role.
What would I say to him? I'd say "Where's all that pocket money you owe me".

I've never wanted to be alternative. I'd like to be... on a scale of 1 to 50, it'd like to be nought.

I think that's a trick with life really, knowing when to stop, or knowing when to move on from one thing to another.
[Interviewer: And knowing when to start as well.]
And knowing when to start, yeah, I guess.