You wrote a lot of material at Tiree in the Inner Hebrides. What was it like there?
Literally, one moment I was in a five-star hotel with people giving me champagne, living my rock’n’roll dreams and the next moment I was walking off the four-seater plane on to Tiree, walking up and down the beach, chopping wood, lugging coal. It was absolutely incredible. I didn’t even know that I’d written an album until I got back and started playing with Andy. Then I realised that all that stuff I had in my notebook was the basis for an album. Starting off with Wire To Wire surprises people. We just put it down and people who heard it really started responding. The recording was the fourth or fifth time we’d played it. It’s all live with live vocal, live piano, live drums, all in one take. We recorded it on an old tape machine, in this tiny studio called the Fish Market in Willesden. We captured a moment. Your lyrics are quite personal such as on North London Trash. Totally. I was trying to write a song for where I’m from, brash, uppity, arrogant North London. That’s my heritage an
