The beat goes on: The Congos (from left) ...

At a secret location in Cardiff, SUPER FURRY ANIMALS have reconvened for their first interview together in over a decade. The reasons? An upcoming tour and the reissue for one of their most beloved albums, Love Kraft . Cue, then, 30 years’ worth of irrepressible anecdotes, covering “ambient space guitar”, Spanish petrol stations, coconuts in Rio, bankruptcy, sampling Steely Dan, altercations with the E Street Band, Japanese TV shows and more. Their conclusions..? “We couldn’t do formula if we tried,” they tell Tom Pinnock

A few years ago, Charlie Burchill and Jim Kerr were interviewed for a BBC documentary about music’s messiest break-ups. Which may seem like an odd booking, given the pair’s famously adamantine bond. B

John & Yoko/ Plastic Ono Band Power ...

Breakfast Special Super’ trouper: keyboard king Rick ...

When ska-pop contenders The Beat ended in July ’83, bassist David Steele and guitarist Andy Cox were cut adrift. Then they found frontman Roland Gift, lifted a name from a Natalie Wood movie and re-emerged as FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS . 1985 UK hit Johnny Come Home was followed by international mega-smash She Drives Me Crazy in 1989. “We didn’t think it would go that mad,” recall the band of multi-million sales, Hollywood A-list fans and ‘bendy legs’ dancing. “We didn’t know how to manage the energy that we’d created.”