Astronomy is an interest of mine, and from looking through a telescope in my back garden, and reading a ton of books about the cosmos, an idea gradually formed in my head to create a one-hour musical journey through space and time.

The direction was to create a mixture of all my influences and bands that I have played with, such as COLOSSEUM II, RAINBOW, Ozzy, Gary Moore etc., and to add a touch of classical music, and obviously a decent helping of synthesiser sounds creating the spacey ambience that is the album's main message.

Hammond organ absolutely. One of the main objects of the recording was to capture the sound of my 1965 Hammond A100 and its two Leslie speakers live. Ewan Davies, the engineer at Chapel Studios, did a great job of that I must say.

19 days from start to finish. We ran a very strict schedule, I wrote music out for all the musicians, and most of the tracks were recorded live, solos and all, in one or two takes. We had some serious fun! The only slight hiccup was the mix of the title track A Light In The Sky - the three minute jam at the end of the song proved a little problematical for some reason, though it is my favourite thing on the album.

I usually think What the hell are we doing here, probably the only sentient beings alone in this huge universe, stranded in an obscure corner of the Milky Way on the tiny pale blue dot that is Planet Earth?. Then I think, It's time to go to the pub.

I once had a fight with Ritchie, backstage, just before the keyboard solo, nothing very serious and it was all forgotten next day. There were lots of difficult moments with Ozzy - we were air-lifted from a festival once in Minnesota in a military helicopter which had no door - as the craft rose in the air Ozzy went to the open gap and sat down with his feet dangling over the edge. Nobody dared move or speak as we all thought he was going to jump and end his current misery. He didn't jump needless to say.

It was one of the best sessions I ever did. Mike Stone, the producer and engineer, was getting an extraordinary sound and he set a very high standard. John Sykes was on fire, and produced some of the best guitar playing I ever heard. Mr Coverdale, didn't sing a note as he was having terrible voice problems, which took a year or more for him to sort out - the keyboards were recorded in 1985 in actual fact.

Roger phoned me up in August 2001 and said that Jon was ill and could I stand in for him for a week. When I asked when the tour started he said tomorrow. As it turned out I did the full month with them, and when Jon eventually retired they very kindly asked me to join the band. A hard job following that guy I must say, one of the greatest Hammond players that ever lived, and one of the nicest and funniest people you could ever meet.

Touring 'till the end of the year with the Rapture Of The Deep album, and then going back into the recording studio, to make another album.

Eddie Van Halen is a wonderful guitar player, and not bad on the keyboards as well! Lucky enough to see him doing a demo for Peavey at the NAMM show 4 years ago when he was recovering from a serious illness and he was just fabulous. Met him a couple of times but never anything more.

I visit the Stadium Of Light at least 3,4 times a year with my two sons who are even more fanatical supporters than I am, and I follow the team's progress wherever I am in the world. Hopefully they can hang on to their Premiership status for another season. I don't bother with the Internet much, but quite keen on keeping the garden looking nice, and watching the birdlife during the day is interesting, and the stars at night similarly.

I just wish we all still made vinyl albums for big record companies - life seemed so much simpler, and music sounded so much better!!