In a year that has been really quite awful for a lot of people it can be a breath of fresh air to attend one of his shows. There is a sense of community that exists inside those walls which can be hard to come by now days. One of those places that Turner felt at home when he was young was the place where everyone goes when they’re ready to experience a great time at 16: Reading & Leeds Festival. “I didn’t know anybody with my taste in music, I wore band t-shirts and I didn’t know anyone else who did. I went to Reading Festival ’95 and I walked in through the gate. Every single person was wearing a band t-shirt and I found my tribe, a safe space for me and I felt accepted for pretty much the first time ever”. Turner and his band, The Sleeping Souls, spent their August Bank Holiday weekend this year playing their 10th Reading & Leeds in a row. “I have a lot of loyalty and it’s an important thing for me. They’ve looked after me a lot over the years and I’ll look after them.”

Do you think that when Turner was kicking around, train touring and sleeping on people’s sofas that he would get his own Leicester Square premiere? Probably not. So how did it come about? “The pitch was to make a film about the band that never stops,” tells Turner before talking about the complications regarding the label and his last album, ‘Positive Songs For Negative People’. “I found myself really having to fight my corner artistically for the first time. Ben Morse had the intelligence to keep filming so it turned out being a film about a year where everything falls apart which I think makes for a more interesting film”.

Having spent a fair part of the year touring the US it’s unsurprising he an opinion or two about the recent presidential election. “I’d spend ages formulating what I was saying really carefully, saying it’s not my business to tell anyone what to vote but the America that I love is better than a lying orange racist.” Something that is probably a common view in this setting, right? “Every time I said that there would be a constituency of people who would shout “FUCK HILARY”. Turner continues to say that it wasn’t because these people were necessarily Pro-Trump but thought Clinton wasn’t a nice choice either.

If you only know Turner for his folk-come-punk body of work then you may well have missed the beginning. It was only after having been in two hardcore bands that he picked up the acoustic guitar and began singing songs about love, loss and drinking too much – but he still keeps his toe firmly plunged in the water with his side project Mongol Horde. If you haven’t heard it, it sounds like throwing a history book into an industrial sized blender but in a really great way. What happens next for them? “I definitely want to write another record but when that will be is anyone’s guess. The number one rule for me is that it has to be fun. If at any point it feels like work it goes on the back-burner”.

Turner’s beginnings as a solo artist had the makings of a social commentator but he realised that this wasn’t what he wanted to make himself. “When I first started out everyone and their dog wanted me to be Billy Bragg mark II. And I like Billy Bragg as a person and as a songwriter but he wasn’t particularly high up my list of influences at any point. With all due respect to Bill, he writes songs in order to do something else, I write songs in order to write songs”.

This affinity that Turner has with rock ‘n’ roll has allowed his artistry to be the driving force of this venture. It has seen him move from The Lock Up to The Main Stage, the toilet circuit to the arenas, and most importantly into the homes, earphones and pub speakers all around the UK, America and the rest of the world. The future? Expect love songs, Mongol Horde and shows. A lot more shows.