MUSIC: MY SIX BEST ALBUMS

NICK KNOWLES, 55, is the TV presenter best known for DIY SOS and Who Dares Wins. He is also a keen musician. His debut album, Every Kind Of People, is out now. THE BLACK EYED PEAS: Monkey Business (Polydor) Will.i.am is an amazing creative force and proves you don’t have to be writing songs about shooting policemen or how rich you are to make good music. When my son played it first, I didn’t get it but now it’s a permanent fixture in my car. It has energy and originality. RADIOHEAD: The Bends (EMI) Anybody who plays guitar has to have a place for Radiohead. They love discord, as I do. Songs such as Fake Plastic Trees are just poetry. On top of that, you’ve got Thom Yorke who has an extraordinary voice and wails better than anybody. CAT STEVENS: Tea For The Tillerman (Polydor) I’m a huge fan of Cat Stevens, as my older brother was. I’ve covered Where Do The Children Play? on my album because it’s as relevant today as it was when this came out. He uses his guitar as a percussion instrument which makes his music particularly interesting. TALK TALK: Spirit Of Eden (EMI) I liked their stuff but this was so out there that I think people got turned off them. I urge people to revisit it. It’s ethereal and orchestral but using modern instruments. It’s as if Gabriel and Peter up by the pearly gates had fallen in love with rock music but were trying to make something

that would be OK by God. BIFFY CLYRO: Only Revolutions (14th Floor) Biffy produce a massive sound. I saw them at Hammersmith and they blew the place away. I discovered them when I bumped into them at a Soho hotel before the NME Awards and helped them load the van. I said if they won, I’d buy them a drink. Later on, we ended up playing guitar together. RAG ’N’ BONE MAN: Human (Columbia) This lad, who sounds like the inheritor of Howlin’ Wolf, has come out of nowhere. He has an amazing voice. He could sing the back of a Kellogg’s Rice Krispies box and you’d listen.