The first single I bought
I used to get a pound pocket money and buy a Milkybar – the chunky one, not the flat one – a can of D&G ginger beer and a copy of the Beano. Then my older sister [novelist Zadie Smith] started spending hers at a record shop on Willesden High Road in north London, where you could get seven-inch singles for 99p. I bought She Makes My Day by Robert Palmer, but I don’t remember why.
The song I inexplicably know every lyric to
My dad was obsessed with Bob Dylan so I’m very familiar with pretty much all of his work from the 60s. I’ve learned the lyrics by osmosis. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue was played at my dad’s funeral, so whenever it pops up on my shuffle, it’s always a bit of a moment.
