“The only gig I can remember playing in those very early days — and I think it was with Rare Breed, but it could have been under a different name, with different band members, ’cos line-ups changed so often back then — was the Birmingham Fire Station’s Christmas party. The audience consisted of two firemen, a bucket and a ladder.We made enough dough for half a shandy (beer mixed with lemonade), split six ways.”

“Today, I will try to remember to regret the past. I will think of how many mistakes I have made throughout my life. I will say to myself, 'If only I could go back in time and make different choices, so that my life could be the way it should have been.' Then I will remind myself that I cannot.”

“When I was in high school I wanted to be in the most underground band ever so we didn’t have a name, songs, no one could play or sing anything and I didn’t tell the other members they were in the band.”

“But growing up hadn’t been all cupcakes and parties, and he could remember wishing for a different life.”

“Of all human lamentations, without doubt, the most common is if only I had known. But we can't know, and so days of death and fire so often begin no differently than those of love and warmth.”

“I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.”