Cricket and lying around in the sun.
Christian the Lion
The Kinks, Scott Walker, Sammy Davis Jnr, The Fall, Vaughan Williams, Subway Sect, Howlin' Wolf, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Rolling Stones (like before 1971), The Masonics, Dusty Springfield, Paul Robeson, The Fifth Dimension, Billy Nicholls, The Claim, Terry Hall, Art Brut, Bacharach, The Speed of Sound, Alan Price, The Zombies, Lou Christie, Tamla-Motown, Sibelius, Toots & the Maytals, Chuck Berry, Magazine, The Specials, Jacques Brel, Billy Fury, Slade, T. Rex, Small Faces, Polnareff, Leadbelly, Roxy Music (pre '78), The Damned (first album), Django Reinhardt, Jake Thackray, The Milkshakes, Supergrass, Pulp, Pavement, Blur, Gainsbourg, The Ken Ardley Playboys, The London Dirthole Company, CeeBeeBeaumont, Sinatra (on Capitol), The Prisoners, The Gruffmen, The Mummies, Matt Deighton, John Barry, David Bowie (pre Scary Monsters, but esp Deram years), Prokofiev, Thee Mighty Caesars, ELVIS(of course), Gene Clark, The Byrds, Chrysalis, Bernard Cribbins, the songs of Randy Newman (providing he's not singing them!), The Left Banke, Pil (early stuff), Air, Portishead, Radiohead, Broadcast, plus Jackie Wilson, Dexys (pre-dungarees) & Northern Soul, soft rock & ska in general.
The King of Comedy, Bedazzled, Sexy Beast, Get Carter, Billy Liar, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Dead of Night, Saturday Night Sunday Morning, Elvis that's the way it is, Spring & Port Wine, Wicker Man, It's a Wonderful Life, The Glenn Miller Story, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Tampopo, The Servant, Accident, Mifune, the Hairdresser's Husband, Amelie, Ghost World, Goodfellas, Casino.
In Bed with Medinner, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Sweeney, Pogles Wood, Saxondale, How. And why isn't there a category for radio?
In the process of compiling my Top 10 books in the following categories: fiction, general non-fiction & cricket. Billy Liar, Saturday Night & Sunday Morning, John Fante, Knut Hamsun, Orwell (esp Aspidistra, 84 & Wigan), Chuck Palahniuk, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, Orton, Pinter, Childish. Paul Auster Emmanuel Carrere - The Adversary Restless by William Boyd. Modern-day Greene. Prefer non-fiction these days (cricket, polar exploration & Captain Cook especially). Bill Bryson's 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' plus his Aussie book. Fergus Fleming's 'Barrow's Boys' is a great introduction to polar madness! The Damned Utd by David Peace The Dead Fathers Club & Last family in England by Matt Haig Renegade by Mark E Smith
Peter Cook, Brian Clough, Captain Cook, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen, Tony Benn, George Orwell, Ray Davies, Scott Walker, John Fante, Jack Regan, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Schwitters, MES, G. Best, Keith Waterhouse, My Dad, My family and too many cricketers to mention.