Hello Steve, you listen to lots of music each week, so can you tell us some people to look out for?
I like Maps, the Mercury nominee. I never heard his stuff before he came on the show but he was absolutely fantastic. Lovely guy. And Friendly Fires. They were awesome, no mistake.

So awesome that you found yourself swaying along, singing the words?
They were awesome but I didn't do that, no! I sway along occasionally but usually I'm running around between links so thankfully I don't have too much time to do that.

Phew. Have you met anyone on the show and thought, 'They're a bit rubbish'?
Well we had Mike Skinner on the show and he was a lovely bloke. I met him once before and he was drunk so I thought he was a bit of a dick but then when I met him again, I thought he was lovely. He was a really nice bloke; I really like him now.

We all know you to be a very smooth presenting operator but
what's the worst thing that's happened to you live on air?
I almost had a fight with Ian Brown [Steve asked Ian to show his martial arts moves, Ian took offense and asked if he should punch Steve 'now or later'] once with this Carling Live 24 thing a while back. I apologised and it nearly came to blows. That was pretty bad for all concerned. Other than that I can't think of anything else too dreadful. I'm pretty controlled. You know when you're around your mother and a switch comes on and you know to stop swearing and find yourself not saying anything too inappropriate, well that kind of comes on when I'm live on air on T4. Not so much as on 'Transmission' because it's on later and so you can get away with more.

That you can. As someone who rides around the country in the quest for the best music you must spend a lot of time in service stations, tell us about the best the UK's got to offer…
Well my favourite service station is Reading services. I like it because I go to back home to Wales all the time in my car and when I first stop off to get petrol, it's at Reading so it reminds me of going home to see my family. Service stations in general have upped their game a bit because they were shit a couple of years back and now a lot of places have a Little Chef and a Marks and Spencers and it's like, "What do I do? Do I go to Little Chef? Do I go to M&S?" Tricky.

It is one of life's biggest dilemmas. What do you listen to on these excursions?
Ooh I listen to a lot of stuff on these journeys. White Stripes, J Dilla, April March, Kenny Rogers. I've got my iPod connected here in my car, put it on Shuffle and away you go. It's one of my luxuries in life.

Ours too. As is having a few Wine Gums to nibble on in the car...
No way! There is no food in my car thank you very much. If anyone tries to eat a bloody pasty in my car I'm like, "Eat it now or we're pulling over!" No Ginsters in that car. I'm very precious about it. The amount of time and money I spend on my car, I don't allow any rubbish and sweet wrappers. Everybody who knows me will tell you that I love my car. But do you know what, I hate watching things like the Grand Prix. It bores me senseless, all those laps. What a pointless load of rubbish!

Quite! Thanks Steve Jones.

Catch Steve and Lauren on 'Transmission with T-Mobile' every Friday night at 00.05 on Channel 4 Full Channel 4 listings here.

Go back to the Transmission with T-Mobile homepage.