I've spoken to Robert Smith a number of times. It's never been a chore. He's an incredibly giving interviewee. This occasion was on the phone at the civilised time of 11.30am one morning in October 1997. For Smith, it was 2.30am! We spoke for half an hour about the singles collection called Galore. Never once did he sound tired or remotely sleepy. We covered a fair bit of history for The Cure from 1987-1997 - the period covered by Galore.

October 21, 2008 will mark the 5th anniversary of the sad passing of Elliott Smith. The US singer/songwriter was an amazing talent and is still highly regarded for his catalogue of 5 studio albums released during his life. He came to Australia only once - in 1998. He visited triple j and I had the chance of asking him about his latest album XO as well as his appearance earlier that year at the Academy Awards when his song "Miss Misery" from Good Will Hunting was nominated. I remember him being softly spoken, thoughtful, often serious and also a little nervous.

In 2001, there wasn't a rock band on the planet as hot as The Strokes. Their debut album Is This It was getting rave reviews everywhere, and - along with groups like the White Stripes - they were leading the wave of bands who were getting back to basic rock'n'roll without huge production thrown on top. After years of Limp Bizkit and Korn, it sounded fresh and exciting. However, when the band toured here for the first time that year, they were far from fresh and exciting when I spoke to them. Julian and Albert (along with Nick in the background on the couch) were tough work for the 25 minutes I had with them. I kept pushing them hoping they'd start talking rather than grunting. Although they admitted to being hungover and put it mainly down to that, there was certainly a real too cool for school 'tude there as well. Here are just three minutes of the interview and this will give you a good idea of what it was like.

Back in 1996, Melbourne's The Living End were just another struggling independent Australian band competing for some attention on the busy local music scene. They had released their second EP called From Here On In. Fronted by Chris Cheney, the trio had emerged from the covers scene with a batch of their own rockabilly inspired rock songs. No one had foreseen how huge the band were about to become 18 months later with their debut album. This is triple j's first interview with Chris. He's talking to Richard Kingsmill about their history, influences and that huge double bass of Scott's.

I recall playing 'Vow' on the radio for the first time. In fact, I think it was the first time the band had been played on the radio anywhere in the world. That's what they told us years later. The single came as a vinyl 7 inch in a metal sleeve - hardly unnoticeable. The band featured Butch Vig. That was enough for me to whack it straight on. He was the producer of Nirvana's Nevermind, but also a lot of US underground albums I had listened to over the previous decade. 'I Can't Use What I Can't Abuse...' - what an opening line! Who was that singer? A Scottish singer called Shirley Manson said the press release. What a voice. This was Garbage and my intial thoughts that Saturday afternoon late in 1994. I got to meet her four years later in 1998 when the band released their second album Version 2.0.

Coldplay launched onto the music scene back in 2000 with their debut album Parachutes. Soon after it went to Number 1 on the UK charts in July that year, Richard Kingsmill spoke to Chris Martin for the first time about their seemingly sudden success, his feelings towards fame, Nirvana and the music world as it looked in 2000.

I've spoken to the Chili Peppers a number of times. This one with bass player Flea is from April 1999. In two months time, Californication - their 7th studio album - was about to be released. It would turn out to be the band's biggest album - selling 15 million copies worldwide. It was the album that also welcomed back guitarist John Frusciante who had recorded the band's superb Blood Sugar Sex Magik in 1991. Flea is a very focused individual. He's a study of concentration on stage and in interviews. We started on an awkward note; I can't recall why it came up, but off mic he expressed disappointment with hearing TISM's "He'll Never Be An Ol' Man River Now". River Phoenix - who passed away in 1993 - was a close friend of Flea's. I chose to not tell him that triple j played the song a lot through the '90s. In this interview - which is basically the whole chat we had one afternoon - we cover the aims of Cailfornication, the drug problems of singer Anthony Kiedis, the return of Frusciante, producer Rick Rubin, and other issues about the music world as it existed in 1999.

In 1999, I passed through Fremantle and one of the gigs I wanted to check out was from this one time busker who was packing out Mojo's on a Sunday night. I saw his show - a couple of hundred people were dancing like nuts, and he was sitting down with his slide guitar driving all the energy. It was John Butler. I spoke to him about his music and his hopes for the future. This is the first triple j interview with the now mega-platinum selling artist.

As quickly as they arrived on the scene back in 2002, they disappeared from it after their second album in 2004. English band The Music - fronted by the enormous voice of Rob Harvey - quickly won fans over with their swaggering, '70s inspired riffs and psychedlic rock. But things fell apart for the band when it came time to write album #3. Exhaustion, depression, writer's block and alcohol all played a part in nearly breaking up this band of high scholl friends. Guitarist Adam Nutter explained how recently to Richard Kingsmill.