Music.... music.... music... ummmm.... music. Sleeping rough at festivals, writing crazy stories and playing out on-stage the wierd things that happen in my head, buying things, glitter, making a nuisance of myself. Running the Attitude is Everything project which improves disabled people's access to live music - find out more on www.attitudeiseverything.org.uk Our project also runs its own clubnights on www.clubattitude.co.uk and www.myspace.com/attitudemyspace Making sweet Kpan Logo in Besta Vista Social Club, an African drumming band. My latest play "The St. George's Day Massacre" has just been read at the Shepherds Bush Library as part of the Westwords Festival.
Other paragons of virtue and restraint who have the odd alcoholic lapses (bet you haven't got as good codeine as me though, unless you are disabled, of course!).
... is The Cure (the root, heart and soul of everything). Blondie (where it all started), Spiritualised (broken and fragmented), Drugstore (a million heartbreaking moments), Dinosaur Jr, PJ Harvey (she's got it), Pink Grease, Electrelane, The Pixies, Cat Power, The Kills, New Order, Bella Union label, Nico, Velvet Underground, Interpol, Super Furry Animals, Beach Boys, Mudhoney, Daniel Johnston, Jeff Buckley, The Flamin' Lips, Jesus and Mary Chain (I got Meltdown tickets), Sex Pistols, Squeeze, Squad 69 (mad country folk / conspiracy theorists!) Primal Scream, Depeche Mode (Basildon's best), Yazoo, Soft Cell, Wannadies, Beatles, The Mission (ho, ho , ho!), Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Buck 65, The Cranes, Hefner (long live Hedley Walter!), The Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, Hole, The Editors, The Paddingtons, Ladytron, Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Elbow, Delgados, New Order (early stuff), Mystery Jets (my boys!), Kaiser Chiefs, The Others, The Duke Spirit, Art Brut, Blur (sometimes), Graham Coxon, Pulp, Siousxie and the Banshees, The Wonderstuff, Eat, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Vic Chestnutt, The Telescopes, Thee Hypnotics, Beach Boys, The Astronauts, Muse, Sindys, Trailer Trash Orchestra, Joy Ziper, Peaches, Gonzales, Placebo, Futureheads, Ash, Von Bondies, Raveonettes, Electric 6, Cherubs, White Stripes, Grandaddy, Le Tigre, Datsuns, Razorlight, Elastica, Gene, Magic Numbers, Suede, Nivana, Tad, Butthole Surfers, Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, Doors, Sons and Daughters, Ride, Chapterhouse, Curve, Echobelly, Sparklehorse, Low, Rock of Travolta........
Saturday Night Fever (the ultimate), Naked, Secrets and Lies, 8 Mile, Crash, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Grease, The Motorcycle Diaries, Ray, Shaun of the Dead, Notting Hill and Love, Actually (you can see my manor!), Peter's Friends, Withnail and I (come on!), The Crying Game, Mona Lisa, Hannah and Her Friends, Little Miss Sunshine and 101.
Heartbeat, Eastenders, Grange Hill, Hollyoaks, League of Gentlemen, Rock School, Big Brother, Little Britain, The Fast Show, Have I Got News For You, Will and Grace, any DIY programmes (trust me, I've got shares in Homebase!), The Real (insert appropriate celebrity) and The Truth About (insert appropriate celebrity), Spaced, The Tube, Top of the Pops in the 70's and 80's, Later, Blakes 7, Doctor Who, The Aprrentice, Bod, Miffy, Dick and Dom...oh god I watch too much tv!
That book that's teaching me how to be a Druid, Norwegian Wood by Murakami, Patient by Ben Watts, any stories by J. D. Sallinger, The Outsider by Camus, Brecht, Boll, and most autobiographies (because I am nosey). Catcher In the Rye, The Dice, Dead Famous, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Dickens, Amy Tan and perhaps my own book one day!
My mum and dad - it wasn't easy in the 70's for a young couple who had never experienced anything out of the ordinary before to bring a disabled baby into the world, but they did a fine job! And John Peel, Debbie Harry, Robert Smith.