“The best aesthetes are working-class. Courage by contrast. Oscar Wilde on the buses, Versace down the chip shop, a falsetto voice on the terraces. Disco ball of nerves that he was, Billy MacKenzie was an aesthete. The Associates were a great group: we ripped them off. Billy was a great singer: I couldn’t rip him off. He was Caruso on a balloon of oxygen. He was over the top of the top and reminded me of my mate and similarly persecuted cabaret volcano, Gavin Friday.”