Author

I went back to Belfast and started a club, the Maritime. No one had thought about doing a blues club, so I was the first.

I understood jazz, I understood how it worked. That's what I apply to everything.

I think Paul McGuinness and U2 created the Irish music industry. It certainly wasn't there before that.

I never paid attention to what was contemporary or what was commercial, it didn't mean anything to me.

I never bought the commercial thing, at any stage of the game.

I learnt from Armstrong on the early recordings that you never sang a song the same way twice.

I educated myself. To me, school was boring.

I don't think nostalgia has to be negative.

I do see value in music criticism. Most of the criticism I have received over the years has been very good.

I always record far more than I can use. There's probably twice as much recorded as comes out.

Van Morrison