Only on a forum where people are so passionate about music could I post this without feeling a like a twat. But I reckon I'm not alone in thinking there have been a couple of bands in my life without whom I would be a different person.

For me they are:

Manic Street Preachers: gone off them quite a lot now but hearing the Holy Bible as a teenager my mental jaw dropped at how utterly dark a song could be. Didn't understand a word but I came away feeling like there was some really awful shit in the world that I hadn't seen before.

Radiohead: I listened to HTTT this morning and it kind of reminded me how fundamentally this band affect how I think about music. But also how much Mr Yorke's lyrics inspire me and have made me think over the years. They're a band I love so much that I always kind of forget I like them. I'll list my favourite bands and then always at the end I kind of go 'oh yeah and radiohead, how could I forget?'. Being inspired to read things like 'No Logo' and 'Captive State' by Thom Yorke really opened my eyes to some issues that I perhaps wouldn't otherwise have known about.

godspeed you black emperor!: just for their ability to be sheer poetry without words. articulating and embodying so much of what I feel about the state the world is in and how to resist it.

There are other bands who mean so much to me, but mostly only in a musical sense. I think these three are the only ones who've changed how I think.

Honourable mention to Bill Drummond of the KLF who's been a big influence on me as an author (not as a musician) with his ability to just take an insane idea and actually do it, and to appreciate pop music as what it is.

So end of my waffle. What are yours?