You live in Suffolk. Ever visited the Suffolk-based Latitude festival?
I haven’t been. I don’t really care for much of the bands that play it, but my wife, daughter, sister and my mum have been to it. I find something else to do.
On a scale of one to 10, how filthy are you at a festival?
I’m completely the opposite, to be honest. If I go to a festival I make sure I’ve got a hotel and transport there and back. I’m not into camping. It’s awkward too, because you get recognised. There are artists’ camping sections, but even so I like my creature comforts.
If you dropped your phone down a festival toilet, would you try to retrieve it?
I actually dropped my sunglasses down the toilet at Bloodstock last year and I retrieved them and washed them quite vigorously. Fortunately the toilet was quite full so they stuck on the top.
Download is sponsored by Carlsberg, Somersby, Co-op, Pepsi Max, Bulleit Bourbon and Ticketmaster. Which is your favourite sponsor?
I’d have to go for Co-op. I’ve got one down the street from where I live and I have a dividend card.
You’re interested in witches and the supernatural. Has anything spooky happened to you in or near a tent?
Well, when we were young we used to go to north Wales camping to pick magic mushrooms. My friends were larking around with a tent peg and somebody threw it to the other guy and it went through his shoe and foot. He was on mushrooms at the time as well.
How many pairs of socks do you wear inside your wellies ?
Always two. You’ve also got to buy the wellies slightly too big.
Marilyn Manson asks to use your last set of wet wipes following a misjudgment involving a dodgy burger – what do you do?
We have an abundance of wet wipes. Too many. For one, we wear a lot of stage makeup and two, there’s the risk that there isn’t a shower at a venue so you have to have a wet wipe shower, which is better than nothing, at least. I have met Marilyn Manson and he’s a likable fellow, so I’d give him some wet wipes.
He flicked a Guardian journalist in the balls during an interview. Has he done anything similar to you?
He’s kissed me on stage once.
If you could curate your own festival lineup using only former boyband members, who would be the three headliners?
The Backstreet Boys, all of them. Let’s get 1D back together again. Then the Beach Boys, they were a boyband, weren’t they?
Cradle of Filth play Download festival
