This is so heavy. If I’m never going to see my kids and husband again, it’s to let them know how giantly, massively and crazily I love them. Every ounce of me loves them so deeply, it makes me cry.

I guess I would wake up, have breakfast with my children. Then I’d go to the studio and make the best record of my life, and then have a lot of sex! That sounds pretty balanced, I think!

Let’s pretend I’ve been training for my pilot’s licence. I’d like to take off in a two-seater sea plane from the loch in Mull and land it expertly in the little boating lake at Heaton Park. Which interestingly has a pair of my spectacles at the bottom of it from my last day at school in 1990.

To be honest, if it was my last day on Earth doing any type of work would probably be the last thing on my mind. So I don’t think there would be any professional endeavours on the last day on Earth. But, I’ve been to the North Pole so you might as well throw in the South Pole. Gotta check out the South Pole.

Right now. It's a beautiful thing to find yourself "the wrong side of 40" and more in love with life than ever. I never tell people this publicly as they wrongly assume the only valid creative state is that of the cliche of the tubercular, tortured artist coughing up blood in his garret.

My wife. She is the most beautiful person I know in every way and has an endless energy for other people that a vinegary old misanthrope like myself can only marvel at.