Oi, Oi, Savile-oi!: an interview with Jimmy Savile, Front, 2000

It sounds yucky, but we made decency popular. You could watch Fix It with your 80-year-old grandma, or eight-year-old daughter, and you’d not be embarrassed.

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Piece of Pearce: an interview with Jonathan Pearce, Front, 2002

Subbuteo I used to commentate on, to the state where no-one would play with me. My parents used to send me up to a room in the attic to play it. I then took it to university.

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You fat b******: an interview with Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown, Front, 2002

Bernard Manning was the first person to ring me when he found out I had cancer. Everyone thinks we’re rivals. We’re not. These are my people, my peers, the people I admire. The people I think are funny.

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Dome alone: an interview with Jim Smith, Front, 2000

The worst was in Newcastle. On a New Year’s Day, against Wolves, it was. We lost at home 4-1. It started a bit from the yobbo end, like.

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Playing Hooky: an interview with Peter Hook, Front magazine, 2002

“Doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, ba-ba-bum-ba-bum.” New Order bass guitarist Peter Hook is explaining how the bass line went in Joy Division’s 1977 track “Leaders Of Men”. “That was more Barney, that,” Hooky is quick to point out. “It’s got a great chord in it – dern-ner-ner-na-newww”

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Extreme Measures: Emma Willis interview, MAN London, 2015

I crushed a vertebrae on a skiing holiday in 2009. It was extraordinary, like a cold, white, metallic pain. They lifted me onto a stretcher, pumped up a warm cushion underneath me, then a phenomenal skier took me down steep slopes to the ambulance.

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And relax… Ian Maclean, MD of John Smedley, MAN London, 2015

Sit back and take the weight off your feet for this is a page of rest. Our first relaxee is Ian Maclean, MD of John Smedley

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Anaerobic-digestion plants: interview with Mike Mason, World Petroleum Council Guide: Biofuels, 2016

A cow’s stomach is a highly efficient anaerobicdigestion (AD) unit, a fact understood by Mike Mason who leads research programmes at Oxford University on AD technology, as well as energy crops for semi-arid regions and hybrid AD/solar systems. In 2013, Mason founded Tropical Power and associate companies Biojoule and Solarjoule in order to construct AD and solar plants in Ghana and Kenya.

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AAFEX-II and the search for alternative aviation fuel: interview with NASA’s Bruce Anderson, World Petroleum Council Guide: Biofuels, 2016

NASA’s Bruce Anderson discusses his biofuels research and how animal tallow and camelina oil could power future jet engines. The trick to reducing global warming? Less contrails.

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Mani about the house: interview with Mani, Front, 2002

Bass guitarist with Primal Scream, once with the Stone Roses, Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield looks like a coalminer who has won the Lottery. He’s got a rugged face but a posh gent’s haircut. Mani was out in London last night filming the Beta Band for his show Nu Music on Play UK. As he bowls through the revolving door into the hotel, he looks on the pale side. ‘Shall we do this over a beer?’ Mani is asked. ‘You’re talking my language, ha-ha-ha!’ he replies. He laughs a lot, does this Mancunian, but when you were an integral part of one of the best albums ever made – The Stone Roses – there’s much to smile about.

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