You Yanks, honestly. Over here we English like to call them ‘compilations’, and I am the master. When I can be bothered to make them that is. I have a hoard of 20 mindiscs which are in a perpetual state of being ‘about to have some songs put on’, plus there are two of each colour (well, four actually, but seeing as ten are 74s and ten are 80s I can tell the difference between the two stacks) so I never have any idea what’s going in the walkman. Russian roulette with your ears (especially frustrating when they’re blank and I only realise after five minutes of silence which I thought was going to transform into a Mark Hollis song at any time). Maybe I’ll make a new one this afternoon…

By the way, Sam, a word of older-brotherly type advice; they absolute key of using music to get women to sleep with you always used to be playing them Grace by Jeff Buckley. Sadly this no longer works now that Coldplay, Starsailor et al have managed to de-sex the man with ridiculous efficiency, but it gave me at least, oh, two nights of naive and inexperienced bliss at university…