Lynyrd Skynyrd: Street Survivors, Second Helping, Pronounced. - I utterly love Skynyrd and can't conceive of a world in which I couldn't listen to them on a regular basis – even the new stuff.

Die Toten Hosen: Auswärtsspiel - German punk rock. Loads of energy and massive choruses.

Doc Holliday: Song for the Outlaw - Reminds me of being at university in Wales.

Betty Blowtorch: Are You Man Enough? - Tragically they only made one foul-mouthed attitude-filled album.

DragonForce: Valley of the Damned. - They've never really come close to matching their debut record.

Rammstein: Mutter - Mental and romantic.

Dream Theater: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - It appears to be obligatory to choose DT. This is by far my favourite.

Gustav Holst: The Planets Op 32 - My favourite piece of classical music. It reminds me of my mother.

Hootie and the Blowfish: Cracked Rear View - Hootie mean nothing at all in the UK but this is my ultimate guilty pleasure. In fact I love all their output.

Power Quest: Neverworld - Simply awesome power metal.

Styx: Paradise Theater - Another which I annoyed Welsh people with by listening to it very loudly on my primitive Walkman.

The Duckworth Lewis Method: The Duckworth Lewis Method - A concept album about cricket. Possibly the most English record not made by Magnum.

Warren Zevon - I could choose anything from his oeuvre but I shall go with the sheer genius of Life'll Kill Ya.