A weekly Evening Session feature taking a look at musician's listening habits.
Steve Lamacq Tonight the nicest man in rock looks back on punk rock, pop star crushes and his favourite gig with Nirvana.
Dave Grohl Hey, this is Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters and this is my Session Obsession.
First Memories of Music:
Edgar Winter Group - 'Frankenstein'
"When I was young we didn't have a record player in my house. My mother was a teacher and of a weekend she'd bring home the school issue record player they had in the classrooms, so we'd go out and buy a record to listen to for the weekend. One of the first albums we bought was this K-Tel compilation album and it had 'Frankenstein' by the Edgar Winter Group, it was the most bad assed thing I'd ever heard in my life, it's got all these crazy keyboards and a drum solo in it."
First Single:
GBH, English Dogs
"The first singles I bought were English punk rock bands like GBH, English Dogs and stuff - they were great."
First Album:
Beatles - Red and Blue albums
"The first albums I bought were those Beatles greatest hits compilations, one was red, one was blue. 'Paperback Writer' was one of my favourites, it had that nasty groove to it. I always thought it was great they could look like such gentlemen and sound like such bad assess. I really thought that was great."
First Crush:
Chrissie Hynde from the Pretenders
"When I was young I think my pop crushes were probably... Chrissie Hynde. I thought she was pretty cute. I was never big on girlie posters in my room, I was more into just rock - I had a Sex Pistols poster and a KISS poster."
Music for Friday night:
Trouble, Chicago, Slayer
"Music for getting pumped up on a Friday night before going out would have to be some old school metal. Usually a band like Trouble, Chicago or Slayer."
Sunday Morning:
U2 - 'Beautiful Day'
"Y'know recently I had a Sunday at home where I was fixing breakfast and I put on the new U2 record. It was quite nice, flipping my eggs, it was a beautiful day man."
First gig:
Jackson Five
"When I was two years old my mother took me to the Ohio State Fair and I saw the Jackson Five, but I don't remember so I can't really say that, so the first band I actually saw perform was Naked Raygun. They were a Chicago hardcore band. I think I was 12 or 13 and I fell in love with punk rock. I didn't go to a proper 'rock concert' till I was like 19, it was the Monsters of Rock with Van Halen, The Scorpions, The Scorpions were pretty great they kicked ass but Van Halen were just kinda crusty."
Favourite Musical Memory:
Nirvana playing Reading Festival in '92
"I think my favourite memory was probably when Nirvana played the Reading Festival in '92. I guess that was the last time we played in England, we were just flying by the seat of our pants man, there was a part of us which was scared, this was an important moment and we had to prove it to ourselves as much as everyone else, at least that's how I felt. I remember playing 'Lithium' and hearing like 50,000 people sing the chorus and it was just incredible because I'd never seen anything like that before. The power of music finally reared it's ugly head to me."
Most Imaginative Musician:
Jimmy Page
"I think Jimmy Page took guitar to place no one has ever been and I don't think anyone can ever duplicate what he does. He just had a way with guitar where he spoke his own language with it. The guy is just probably the most passionate player I've heard in my life."
Most recent record purchase:
Outkast - 'Stankonia'
"I read somewhere, somebody called it 'The Bohemian Rhapsody of Rap', and in a way it works. They are doing a good thing for rap music by making it fun to listen to, rather than a threat to your well-being. "