13. Velvet UndergroundWhite Light / White Heat

Velvet Underground had Nico singing ‘Sunday Morning’ and ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’. When they’re singing those songs they had an offhand punk attitude. ‘White Light / White Heat’ captures a bit of a that. When [Buzzcocks] first got together, I think we rehearsed ‘White Light / White Heat’ a couple of times. Not sure whether we ever played it live, but it was a bit of a blueprint, the Velvet Underground, for us.

It just takes me back to those really early rehearsals when we did that song. I think maybe I’m going "white light" and Pete’s going "white light catching in brain". We were doing a question and answer thing to each other. It reminds me of Pete as well a bit in the real early days when we started off. We did that song and it puts a little tingle down your back.

The Velvet Underground had their thing. It was a bit dark, there was some heroin about, but they had these great seedy songs. You always imagine you had to be in a basement in New York, wasted, listening to those songs, in mummy and daddy’s posh house somewhere. It kind of makes you look at the world in a distorted, loser way.