"Robert Johnson stole my heart when I was fourteen," he says. "I tuned into a subculture running parallel to my shiny grammar-school life. It's ridiculous that British musicians should have been able to get anywhere near it, because it's based in African scales that don't have any grounding on these islands, I don't think.

"We just were moved by the colour of the music; the sound was so evocative and poignant and something that we were probably needing in our composite make-up, filling up a hole, an emotional outlet."