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Growing up, your music had that 'word of mouth' appeal. Why do you think that is?

"Aside from being complimented, I haven’t got a clue. If I did, I suppose I could capitalise on it. But I have absolutely no idea about anything to do with that."

Loads of bands include Lou Reed among their influences. What’s it like being referred to as a living legend?

"Well, it’s better than being referred to as a lot of other things."

Manchester bands have always done their own thing. Is there less encouragement for young people now…?

"The internet gives a big opportunity to people who want to do music that’s based on a purity of feeling. There’s an outlet there that wasn’t available."

"Great fun, great opportunity. A lot of great players are on the album, and a lot of great players in the show. We have 3 or 4 strings, 3 or 4 horns, London Youth Choir, the basic bandÌý and two background singers. Pretty good."

What’s the true story about screams on The Children? And is it true the producer Bob Ezrin locked one of his kids out of the studio and taped him crying for his mum…

"That’s a tape put together by Hal Wilner, who’s one of the producers of the show. It’s probably more likely he said he’d buy him a bunch of ice cream cones if he could scream louder than ADDB."

Why have you chosen to perform Berlin for MIF?

"We’d originally performed Berlin in New York for just 650 people. And I did that because a friend of mine had been asking for years: why don’t you come in and perform this live?Ìý She loves the record and said: come on, it would just be for a small audience, I’d love to hear it live. And one day, I wasn’t doing anything, so I said: Sure, why not? And then it grew a bit since then. But Bob Ezrin and I always wanted to staged this live. And here was an opportunity, so one time and one time only. We’ve always thought of Berlin as a complete work with an order to it. So we’re going perform it was meant to be done, except live."

Do you ever look back and think I could have done this differently?

"We are pretty happy it. But live is live and there’s a major tweak on playing electric guitar on it. That’s a big deal tweak."

Caroline Says, that’s a re-working of Stephanie Says which was from the old Velvet Underground.

"It’s like Rock 'n' Roll Animal which was all old Velvet Underground material. So I thought maybe they didn’t get it first time around, so let’s try it again later."

People tend to over-analyse Lou Reed music. Does that annoy you?

"I’ve always been startled by music. You know, you can’t hold it, you can’t see it, yet it does this thing to us. Yet in every culture, for every people, whatever door you come in with, musically it’s the same."