Andy Rourke

SMITHS BASS, DJ, FUNK HEAD

What music are you currently grooving to? All For One by The Stone Roses. It sounds proper back to basics. And I’ve been going back to The Pretenders’ first album. There’s a song called Up The Neck, with lots of sexual innuendo. Also Miles Davis’s Birth Of The Cool and, because last year I bought a turntable, a lot of vinyl secondhand – The Rolling Stones, Roy Ayers, Mott The Hoople.

What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? I can’t answer that. I’m going to plead the fifth.

What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it?

It was Wizzard’s See My Baby Jive, I think, from Boots The Chemist in Sale, Cheshire, because I lived out in the sticks. And then I bought a Sweet record. I remember looking for Life On Mars and coming out with The World Of David Bowie

compilation for 50p or something… I was initially disappointed, but then I found its good qualities.

Which musician, other than yourself, have you ever wanted to be? None. I’ve never really thought of that – everybody else is taken.

What do you sing in the shower? Frank Sinatra, New York, New York. I do a lot of thinking in the shower, and then I go, “Holy shit I’m living in New York.” If I have any doubts I sing Frank.

What is your favourite Saturday night record? Sly And The Family Stone, Dance To The Music. Though I try to stay at home because all the fucking idiots go out – I live in the East Village, and honestly you step outside the door and it’s like a fucking jungle. People screaming and vomiting.

And your Sunday morning record?

Call me obvious, but Sunday Morning by The Velvet Underground works.

Make yourself a cup of tea, take your fucking ibuprofen, look out the window and listen. Fucking great.