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Can you remember your early days on the show, way back in 1978?
ÌýI've got loads of memories of TOTP but I haven't been on for a long time 'cos I haven't had any success for a long time. I never had a favourite performance that I did. I never could watch it. I'd always make my mates watch it first and tell me If I was OK. Then I'd watch it later on my own in a dark room. I'm still like that!

What's it like being back in the limelight again?
ÌýI was on Graham Norton the other night and I couldn't watch it. It went really well. I was a bit nervous when I sat down to do the chat 'cos there are so many things in my past that you could make fun of - dodgy images, dodgy haircuts and stuff. I'm very cool with it but he had some great pictures! I just didn't know what he was going to do so I was a little bit daunted.

How do you feel about all these people covering your tracks?
Gary: I like the Basement Jaxx track ['Rip' was sampled on 'Where's Your Head At?']. I was very pleased with that.

And what about the Sugababes?
The Sugababes didn't know who I was. 'Are Friends Electric?' was No.1 seven years before one of them was born. So why should they know? But being No.1 with them paled into insignificance when I became No.1 on the Kerrang! channel. I was in Mexico on holiday when it happened and I was well chuffed.

And would you return the favour by covering a Sugababes song?
Oh no, not that I've got anything against them - I just write my own stuff. I would never do anybody else's songs. If this is what you do then writing songs is how to do it, not copying other peoples! You don't get no money for that and I love writing songs.

So are you surprised that people still remember you?
I am surprised that I keep popping up in the charts - I don't understand it at all! You've got Basement Jaxx and Sugababes now and Armand Van Helden before that. Plus I've worked with Marilyn Manson. It seems as if I've had some kind of effect on all kinds of music - rock, pop, dance and heavy industrial which is my favourite. That's incredibly flattering and I'm really proud of it.

Have you always been successful?
I've had my bad periods between '90 and '92 and I put out a reallyÌýrubbish album so I wasn't happy. There was a whole lot of stuff going on - essentially I lost track of what I wanted to be and what I wanted to sing about. When I first started everything was from the heart - this was how I felt, this was what I wanted to sound like - and I knew what I was doing. Then I got famous and made some money and then it started to go a bit weird. Very quickly I started to add stuff to my records that weren't my own ideas. The record company said: "You should do something a bit calmer - a bit mellower! If you do what we say we'll put a big budget into the video." And then you sell yourself.

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