There's no doubt at all he's the most interesting producer to emerge in a long time and since I regard myself as primarily a producer (as opposed to the media which recently has found it more rewarding to describe me as a "radio DJ" - more fun to bash the BBC!) I'm intrigued.

I'm not mental for his current hit although, being a massive Bruno Mars fan, I think Bruno contributed a great part of that. Intriguing how fast the Fleur cover dropped after the TV exposed start.

Hmm - talking about sampling; I'm not convinced - sometimes it's fine (if you knew how many times I've had requests to sample Johnny Reggae; all refused) - often not. We've made a lot of money from samples in my companies - masters and songs, publishing. Remember Madonna using Abba's hook? Sadly my Ooga Chagga from Hooked On A Feeling was not copyrighted as a co-write (which I suppose I should have done in 1971 but, really, why bother?). Read all about that in 70 FFFY.

I find I know many of Mark's ancestors - his uncle had offices in our Decca Great Marlborough Street building in the 60s (as, it was rumoured, did MI6) and his Dad was involved in artiste management. And his Mum remarried a Foreigner.

Surely the Fleur cover dropped due to the rush release of the original?

What's all this about sampling, is there a message missing from this thread? Does Uptown Funk contain samples?

No K I was talking about comments Mark made on Chris Evans' show this morning. Catch it on iPlayer.