In The Hot Seat This Week: Justin Currie

They were Scotland's biggest rock band before Travis decided to write slow songs, but they still have the biggest side-burns north of Watford, which no doubt keeps them happy. Here cheery front-personage Justin Currie goes to great lengths when describing his dislike of Ween. And who'd have thought it: he's got a Sonic Youth record...

1) Your favourite CD that no one else you know owns?

Babybird's "There's Something Going On". I keep telling everyone about it but no one seems to believe me that it's the greatest album out of the UK in five years since Grand Prix, Vanishing Point and Giant Steps.

2) A CD you paid through the nose to own?

I bought myself the punk compilation "1-2-3-4" as a Christmas present. Funnily enough it has 5 CDs. And a very pretty grey box. Worth the thousands of spondoolies for the Mekons' "Where Were You" alone. I lost my 7" of it a few years back and it nearly broke my heart. Sad, I know.

3) The last chart CD you bought?

Does "2001" by Dr Dre count? I don't know if it charted but I fucking love it. Seems a bit non PC mind you, but hey, so were Pilot.

4) What CD that you loaned out would you like back RIGHT NOW?

Me? Lending out CDs? Whoever can you be thinking of? Actually,I know someone who has my 1st B-52s album on vinyl and has had it since 1979 but he's forgiven because he introduced me to the Sex Pistols and the Buzzcocks and he's still bigger than me.

5) What piece of vinyl do you take with you, knowing full well that it won't fit into the CD case?

The mono version of "Revolver" that I bought on the street in New York from a bum with a shopping trolley for six bucks. I remember him saying "That's a real nice album, man, real, real nice". He was half right.

6) What CD single are you certain would get everyone dancing?

"The Boy Is Mine" by Brandy and Monica or maybe "No Diggety" by Blackstreet. Works for me.

7) If your whole CD collection was stolen, what 3 would you immediately go out and buy again?

Hmm... Oh God I'm going to get lynched for this but in all honesty: Richard Strauss' "Four Last Songs" sung by Jessie Norman; Ben Webster Meets Gerry Mulligan & Hell Among the Yearlings by Gillian Welsch. I say these really because not only would they immediately make life worth living again but because they function so much better on CD than obvious things like Hard Day's Night, Doc at the Radar Station and Al Green Is Love which are essential vinyl LPs.

8) The best bargain CD you have ever found?

I think I got Sonic Youth's "Goo" second hand for three bucks somewhere. Also PJ Harvey's last album would have been worth twice the money. She's God, as Hugh Jones would say.

9) The most embarrassing CD you own?

Let's face it ,the appeal of Weezer didn't quite last the week let alone the decade, did it? And I'm probably one of thefew people who own Ween's hideous "The Mollusc". Has there ever been a worse title for a record? Believe you me, the content lived up to it's billing. Like starving to a slow and tedious death caught in the mucal track left by a deeply disturbed giant snail.

10) What CD do you put at the front of the pile so that no one is in any doubt how cool you are?

This is a very good question. I did carry Tricky's "Maxinquay" around in my CD wallet for about six months until I finally admitted to myself that it was more boring than watching Partick Thistle practicing free kicks from the roof of a block of flats in the fog. At the moment I'm convinced that any old Cilla Black LP is cool, so I have a copy of her Best Of rather prominently displayed in my fireplace. She looks very fetching in her orange suede hipsters and little black cowboy hat. Most of my friends try to burn her but I tell them I'm ahead of the style police by possibly decades. Oh, and anything by Elvis. You can't go wrong with icons, they work on every level. Even his Christmas album can be displayed without even the faintest whiff of irony. And failing that there's always space for BA Robertson to be rehabilitated as a symbol of all that is groovy about youth culture.

Bonus question: Would You Pay For An MP3?

What's an MP3 and how do you keep it clean?

Submitted by David Sills