Old punk rocker from Edinburgh, Scotland. Plays bass guitar with Sad Society . Believes trains are the transport of the future. Finds TXT SPK intolerable. Believes wealth should be distributed according to need, not greed. Absolutely hates football. Vegetarian.
F.A.Q.
Q) Where and when were you born?
A) St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, on 6th September, 1963.
Q) How tall are you?
A) 6'1"/1.83m.
Q) What's your hairstyle?
A) A dog's dinner.
Q) What colour is your hair?
A) Peroxide-blonde with stupid pink bits.
Q) Do you have any piercings?
A) Just the one.
Q) Do you plan on getting any more body-mods?
A) Nah, I'm not in the mood just now.
Q) Why do call yourself 'goth'?
A) I don't, really. The 'goth' part of my screen-name is because I've always worn black, but I don't wear black because I'm a goth. Besides, the goth scene today has nothing to do with Bauhaus, The Birthday Party or Siouxsie.
Q) Why do you dress in black, then?
A) Beautiful ladies in fishnet stockings and big boots made me do it!
Q) How much do you weigh?
A) Too much, but I'm applying myself to my latest lard-busting regime with the utmost determination.
Q) What is your favourite food?
A) Crisps, tragically.
Q) When did you stop eating dead things?
A) February 1983.
Q) And you still grew up to be a big strong laddie?
A) It would appear so.
Q) What is your favourite drink?
A) Guinness; Highland Park whisky; Crabbie's ginger wine.
Q) Do you smoke?
A) No. But smoke frequently comes out of my ears. Probably.
Q) What are your favourite colours?
A) Depends on my mood... Sometimes black and purple, sometimes dayglo pink and green.
Q) What is your sexual orientation?
A) If this really matters to you, fuck off!
Q) You loved school, didn't you?
A) Fuck, aye! What more could a laddie ask for than year after year of excruciating boredom, the belt, and being forced to play rugby in the freezing wind and snow when he has asthma?
Q) Did you ever do any work at school?
A) No.
Q) Wasn't there anything you missed about being at school?
A) Aye: seeing my female class-mates' legs in those sexy black tights!
Q) Did you get any qualifications?
A) 8 'O' Levels and 3 Highers.
Q) Did you go to university?
A) No. The thought of yet more years of lectures, swotting and exams, and the company of dreadful, rich 'yah' students filled me with dread.
Q) What job do you do?
A) I'm a scrounging layabout the bassist in a soon-to-be-famous punk rock group!
Q) What car do you drive?
A) I don't. I hate cars, and haven't the slightest desire to own one. Cars are the most ruinous-to-the-environment, dangerous-to-life contraptions ever invented by man. You only have to look at a 1950s photo of Edinburgh (or any city) to see the appalling damage that dual carriageways, one-way systems, roundabouts, traffic lights, car-parks, and the hideous clutter of road markings and signs have caused to the cityscape since then; never mind the noise, fumes and public danger caused by the traffic itself. I long for the day when cars and lorries are banned from our towns and cities and motorways are ripped up and returned to nature, just as 50% of our railways were in the 1950s and 1960s.
Ruined Edinburgh streetscape, 2004.
Q) Which styles of music do you like?
A) Seventies glam-rock and metal, trad-punk, gothic metal and instrumental metal, mostly; but I love music in general and like to think my tastes are fairly wide-ranging. It's got to be stuff that forces you to listen, though; I can't stand bland, repetitive, manufactured shite.
Q) Which styles of music do you dislike?
A) Bland, repetitive, manufactured shite! I hate rap, hip-hop and so-called rave 'music'. I can't stand Coldplay, Keane, Toploader, Starsailor or Embrace, and I firmly believe they should all be killed. And why can't Dildo Dido get run over by a steamroller? Your average chimpanzee has more musical talent and originality!
Q) What are your favourite films?
A) I love Irma Vep, featuring the incomparably gorgeous Maggie Cheung in her skin-tight shiny pvc cat-suit. Wow!! And The Filth And The Fury (Sex Pistols documentary) always cheers me up!
Maggie Cheung in Irma Vep.
Q) What are your favourite TV programmmes?
A) I don't watch the telly. I've unplugged mine and shoved it in a cupboard, because I should always have something better to do than sit on my arse and be fed pro-capitalist, pro-war propaganda and twaddle about celebrities and the Royal Family.
Q) What is your favourite book?
A) The VIZ Bumper Book Of Shite.
Q) What religion do you believe in?
A) I was brought up to believe that religion is a load of absolute codswallop, and that's not a sentiment I would disagree with now.
Viz cartoon, 2005.
Q) Who are your heroes?
A) The creators of brilliant music.
Q) What is your political orientation?
A) Socialist/anarchist. I hate racism, inequality and greed, and I detest the capitalist system. The Green Party got my most recent vote.
Q) How would you sum up your attitude to 'The System'?
A) This quote from the cover of the Manic Street Preachers' album, The Holy Bible, expresses my feelings perfectly: "You're obliged to pretend respect for people and institutions you think absurd. You live attached in a cowardly fashion to moral and social conventions you despise, condemn, and know lack all foundation. It is that permanent contradiction between your ideas and desires and all the dead formalities and vain pretenses of your civilisation which makes you sad, troubled and unbalanced. In that intolerable conflict you lose all joy of life and all feeling of personality, because at every moment they suppress and restrain and check the free play of your powers. That's the poisoned and mortal wound of the civilised world." (The Torture Garden - Octave Mirbeau)
I am also on LiveJournal . Feel free to read and add me there. Sad Society are on MySpace and PunkRockers.com . Listen to our songs and add us there!