Saxon, the greatest rock band of all time, lives in my basement

What was your cultural passion at 14?

When I was 14, I was into radio. There was a phone-in show on GWR in Bristol, hosted by Dave Barrett. After a few years, I started to phone in, in character. I remember the question was: if you could go up in a hot air balloon, who would you go up with and why? I was trying to be surreal, so I thought: I'll say I want to go up with Bob Holness. Bob Holness sounds like a funny name to say. And I thought balloons were powered by helium, so I phoned in in a very high-pitched voice, and called myself Harry Helium. So Harry Helium then started to make regular appearances on air. Eventually, Dave Barrett asked me to come into the studio to do something live. So that was my opportunity. It paid off!

What are you reading in bed at the moment?

This sounds so naughty: I love to read, but I have about half a dozen books on the go at the moment. I pick them up, start them, and I put them down - and I buy in bulk. So, at the moment, I'm trying to finish Salinger, a biography on Salinger by Paul Alexander; and I'm still trying to get through Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis. The last one that I completed was Tourism by Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal, and I thought that was excellent. I've also started reading Ron Jeremy's book. Ron Jeremy is one of the most famous porn stars that's ever lived and he's just written his autobiography. I need to read so much more of that one. I haven't really got to grips with it, as it were. It's called The Hardest (Working) Man in Showbiz. See what they've done there? I'm also quite a fan of Rupert Thomson. I can highly recommend The Book of Revelation, it's brilliant. One of his other efforts I picked up was The Divided Kingdom and that one I struggled with. It's nowhere near as good. I got 293 pages in and I thought, I'm going to read Tourism. You know a lot of people will say, I've got halfway through, I'm not enjoying it but I'll get to the end? I don't do that. If I'm reading a 400-page novel, if I read 300 pages and it ceases to become enjoyable, I will put it down.

What music are you listening to at present?

I am retro man, so I discover things that have been around for an awfully long time. For the past year, I've got myself massively into Led Zeppelin. I'll be 33 in July and, after all these years, I've finally got myself into Led Zeppelin. More recently, I've also got the new albums by Mika and the Gossip but, also, what is obviously the best album so far this year, Amy Winehouse's Back to Black. It's wonderful. I also happened to buy Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics, because my little boy, who is two next month, loves her new song, "Candy Man". Isn't it brilliant?

What is the least disposable pop song?

I'm a huge Beatles fan. The Beatles are, for me, the greatest band that has ever been and possibly ever will be, so none of their stuff is disposable. But then, I'm a huge fan of cheese, and I would cry myself to sleep if I could never hear "I Want to Wake Up With You" by Boris Gardiner again in my life. And you could have everything the Rolling Stones have ever done, but just leave me with Charlene, "I've Never Been To Me".

Do you have a hole in your cultural life?

I don't know enough about art, in terms of painting and sculpture, and yet I am a huge fan of Van Gogh, and one of my all- time favourite reads is the collected letters of Van Gogh to his brother, Theo. I'm actually a fan of Van Gogh and not so much his work. I can see the paintings in my mind but I don't know their official titles.

Which cultural item would you like to steal?

The graffiti artist Banksy does stuff in Bristol all the time, and the great thing about him now is that he has got the respect that I believe he deserves, so the council leave his stuff alone. Banksy's first self-portrait was up for auction recently, where he has painted himself with a man's torso but with the head of a chimpanzee. I would dearly love that on my wall, so would steal that in a heartbeat.

Who would play you in the Hollywood version of your life? And who would be your nemesis in the final reel?

Wow! That's a good one. I get confused quite a lot for one of the presenters of Fifth Gear on Five. A lot of people come up to me and start asking me about cars, and I have no idea what they're talking about. But I don't even know his name so it couldn't be him. I suppose Barry Gibb would have to play me. And I suppose if Barry Gibb was playing me, my nemesis would have to be Clive Anderson.

Who would win this time round?

I would have to say, Barry Gibb as me would come out the winner. I would like to go back to that moment. It was all about their early band, Les Tosseurs, and Anderson said, "Well, you'll always be tossers to me". And then that was it, they got up, and Barry Gibb pointed at Anderson and said, "You're the tosser, pal." What I could never understand is, they are British and understand what tosser means, so why on earth did they call themselves that? So maybe in the movie of my life, we could clear that one up.