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When we played Paris, the English punks would come over, and they got to know the French punks. There was some nice scenes in the back alleys.

To some extent at that time, we injected rock and roll into that scene- we played loud and that was a huge turning point for that scene. We were involved in playing with all those people.

I guess, for me, what started me getting real excited about music was the New York punk and new-wave scene. All those bands looked back to the Velvet Underground and the Stooges and the Modern Lovers as well. But that was back when Television were punk, and the Talking Heads were punk.

When we started to do punk, we put all of these things together to create the look of an urban guerrilla - a rebel.

Punk was more based on social change than on music, so it didn't bother me too much. It wasn't really a musical threat.

What was punk all about? To me, it was if you really want to do something, go ahead and do it.

To see classic rock, you had to go to an arena. But punk was happening everywhere, even in little towns in the middle of nowhere in Maryland. I'd drive out to places I'd never been, just to go and see it.

In the end, punk inevitably burned itself out and acted as a bridge across which the New Romantics could sashay in their chiffon and glossy hair.

Punk was never about one particular clean-cut imagery... it's about many, many individuals coming very loosely together.

I was always into punk, ever since I was 13, but I was into other stuff, too - like, well, the Spice Girls. I really liked Scary Spice.