Earlier this year John Grant turned 50. He didn’t go to the local Harvester with all the family, he travelled to Cedar Point, Ohio – an amusement park that calls itself the Rollercoaster Capital of the World. John Grant likes rollercoasters. He likes them a lot. In fact, you’ll hear him dissecting the qualities of Top Thrill Dragster v Millennium Force and Gatekeeper and Valravn in this conversation.

I met up with him in a studio in east London a few weeks ago. John stretched out on a rickety (uncomfortably lookin’) old sofa to tackle such pressing topics as: Tracy Thorn’s genius, the BRIT Awards, writing an Icelandic entry to Eurovision, being the master of five languages and wearing a birdcage on his head (for good reason, it’s the cover of his new album ‘Love Is Magic’ out now).

What fun we had.