Melissa, I'm guessing what you're trying to ask me, is am I inspired by other musicians like David Sylvian or my husband, Robert Fripp. I know David - my husband has made great albums with him. And obviously I know Robert Fripp because I cook, clean and wash his socks for him. But when I write, I write with the knowledge and availability of technique that I own. Otherwise I could sound like Bach, Mozart or Beethoven. I am creative with both my limitations and my sense that everything is possible. So in answer to your question, no, I'm not influenced by either David or Robert. I remain true to Toyah. What I would like to add is I've never known anyone more influenced by Toyah than Robert. He nicks my artwork, he nicks my ideas, he nicks my musicians, he nicks my vocabulary. But I love him, he's my husband and he's more famous than me!

I totally get what you mean. Last week I was working with YolanDa Brown, the saxophonist. I recommend you look her up. She's won MOBOs, she's a joy to be with, gorgeous spirit, self-taught and she improvises all her shows.

I'm sure I did yes. Actually, I've got a Cheggers story. Over 40 years I worked a lot with him. He was the biggest wind-up merchant I've ever known. I was sound checking for a festival in Hampshire and Cheggers was the compere. While we were sound-checking he walked up to me and told me the festival was cancelled, to which I went: "No!!! It can't be! The site's up, the audience is here." He was winding me up.

Great question! Thank you.

Dear Alien, The human race has a habit of having a hierarchy and a lower-archy. In the UK in particular this is represented by working-class, middle-class and upper-class.In the modern day this class system is slowly breaking down. I think thanks to punk, where the attitude was everyone has a right to voice their creativity, to voice their dislikes as much as their likes, the punk movement in effect woke up a sleepy world, pointed the finger at corruptions, unjust practices and hypocrisy, allowing a generation to pick up their guitars and sing. Punk is the voice that shouts the loudest from the silence of inertia.

From today's perspective, it's been a joy to experience a new generation discovering and loving Jarman's work. That alone is a legacy. But I feel you need me to be more specific. I'd say that Derek without any form of compromise created a collage - layers of sound, colour, image - that he would have done on a canvas but was able to do in moving film too. It's not everyone's choice but I know he's influenced the greats. About 25 years ago, Greenaway contacted me asking to see my copy of The Tempest. My immediate thought was, I'll send it to you if I can be in your next film. But I knew that wasn't going to happen. So very graciously I lent him my copy of The Tempest. And I realised that Derek's influence was broadening.

Thank you for this question. The press always tried to play Hazel and I against each other in the 80s. It was a pretty typical thing to experience back then. We work a lot together today. I'm incredibly fond of her and admire her work as much as I admire Kate Bush's. Hazel has always reached out to me to make contact and catch up. She's been a good friend. Her mother used to send Hazel press clippings about me so Hazel always knew what I was up to. I find your question particularly interesting because I was always very envious of Hazel winning the lead in Breaking Glass, a film for which both I and Kate Bush auditioned for. Having seen the film many times, no one other than Hazel could have played that role. And the songs she wrote for the film are iconic.

My makeup artist Sean Chapman also makes my jewellery for me. He made the gold coil necklace from go faster stripes you can buy for your car in Halfords. It's basically plastic that he moulds around wire.

I play acoustic guitars that can be miked up to a speaker. I have three favourite guitars. One was left behind at my warehouse Mayhem in 1979 by Iggy Pop. It was his rehearsal guitar. It's a very beaten-up acoustic which I take everywhere with me. My other guitar is a slide guitar, also known as a National guitar, which I have tuned alternate strings to D, G, D, G, D, G. This is a standard blues tuning that I learned when I read Keith Richards' Life. It is such a fun tuning to work with. And currently I'm doing most of my writing in this tuning. I play also, in standard tuning, because it's really good for my cognitive brain to think in that way. I'm dyslexic and one of the biggest problems I have is that I can't always remember sequences of letters. I also play keyboards - badly - and violin - extremely badly.

I worked with Tony Banks on the song Lion of Symmetry for a film with Johnny Hallyday. Tony Banks sent me the backing track and asked to me write the lyric and melody line. I found it easy to do because I loved the track I was sent. When I was ready I went down to his studio in the south of England and spent the day putting the voice down on the track. Tony has since said this was one of the most enjoyable collaborations he's ever had. I take that very seriously as a compliment. I loved the project. I was free to layer as many voices I wanted on the track. In the afternoon, having put about 10 vocal layers on to this track, Tony asked me if I could sing a straight A over the whole of the song. I had no problem doing this but it was the wrong key for the song. I managed to do it without going off pitch. At the end of recording this straight A for the first time, Tony said through the booth, "That doesn't work. But I'm amazed that you never once went out of tune!"

You ask if I'm doing something special to celebrate with my fans. All this is in the pipeline and all news will be released hopefully in the not too distant months but my main priority is to own my back catalogue.

Thank you very much for the birthday wishes - it's much appreciated. We have been planning for three years for every one of my albums to be re-released this year. These plans are still moving forward but greatly affected by Safari's choice to sell my entire back catalogue just as we delivered the release plan to them. As you can guess, I am finding this one of the most insulting, infuriating, nastiest things anyone could have ever done to me in my 40-year career. Currently, I am waiting for the material to become available on the market so I can be a bidder for it. I am hugely grateful to Demon music who have offered to part buy with me to make the purchase possible. We still plan to release five box sets over the next three years.

The music is of the era - we have The Fall but also we travel in time to the present day and we have M.I.A.'s Bad Girls. The music illustrates the play in its energy, its brilliance and its vibrancy. Jack, the great Orlando, was a joy to be with. He was always happy, always enjoyed meeting new people, and had the most fantastic guide dog who everyone loved. Surprisingly, Jack was not a gossip considering he had probably experienced many things worth gossiping about. But he was always a good friend and good company. When I first rehearsed with him on the set of Jubilee, I didn't realise he was blind, because Jack always went on to the set and counted the steps so he learned the space. Never once did I witness a blind man.

Actually, yes. I used to have a house rabbit, Willy Fred (named after Bill, the drummer in REM and now the keyboard player in King Crimson, my co-writer in the band The Humans). The rabbit was a New Zealand white with pink eyes. Looking at him and realising all he needed in life was to be safe, well fed and warm, really helped ground me while I'm songwriting. His life force made me realise how important it is to centre yourself to the truth of why we're alive - ie that everyone in the world, no matter who or what they do or their background, needs to be safe, warm and well fed. Believe it or not Willy Fred had stroppy days. This, for me, made for better songwriting because it was as if I was dealing with a teenager who thought I was the most boring old-fashioned human being they'd ever come across. Some of my best songs have evolved from when I used to sing to Willy Fred when he was being a stroppy teenager. One example is Sensational off the Crimson Queen 2007.