Things what I like... Musicmusicmusic (listening to and gigging to); dancing, ESPECIALLY dancing in the Pav Tav or the Kambar; hanging out with my lovely friends; hanging out with one Christopher John Challis; eating fish and chips on Brighton beach; rollerskating on Brighton seafront (yet to do it, but I have the skates, it’s only a matter of time...); ice-skating at Hampton Court Palace at Christmas time; holidays in Barcelona; holidays in Wells; holidays generally; kooky indie films; pretty much anything indie actually; music festivals; making compilation tapes; listening to those 'bits' in songs; beating Chris at Wii golf; JD & (diet) coke; caipirinhas; cups of tea; caburys creme eggs dipped into cups of tea; Mrs Challis’ chocolate squidgy cake; chocolate generally; and anything – absolutely anything – to do with monkeys!
Jimi. Jake and Elwood. Vince and Howard (the men, not our gerbils, although they’re kind of cool too)
Ohhh, where to start?! Super Furry Animals, that’s where! Also, Jimi, Big Gaye Marvin, Smokey Robinson, Al Green, Otis Redding, Marlena Shaw, Lynne Collins, James Brown, Dusty Springfield, Bowie, Beach Boys, Velvet Underground, The Stooges, The Clash, The Kinks, Primal Scream, Kings of Leon, The Strokes, BRMC, Beck, The Libertines, Bloc Party, Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes, The Shins, The Spinto Band, Kasabian, Fear of Flying, The Kooks, The Faint, Lambchop, Modest Mouse, Two Gallants, Jamie T, Tapes’n’Tapes, Polytechnic, We Are Scientists, Mooney Suzuki, Eagles of Death Metal, The Charlatans, The Rakes, Duels, Aqualung, Magnetic Fields, The Black Keys, Rocco Deluca, Razorlight, Smoosh, Death From Above 1979, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Guillemots, Joy Zipper, Frou Frou, Klaxons, Merz, Le Tigre, CSS, Chemical Brothers, Aim, Jamie Lidell, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Jurassic 5 (have I ever mentioned that I’ve met and been clubbing with them?? No? I must tell you about that some time…), DJ Format, DJ Shadow, Handsome Boy Modelling School, Killa Kella, Beardyman, M Ward, Nick Cave, Nick Drake, Daniel Johnston, Jose Gonzalez, Jeff Buckley, Willy Mason, Big Bob Dylan, The Band, Sufjan Stevens, Dan Sartain, Joanna Newsom, Iron & Wine, The Early November, Dashboard Confessional, Angels & Airwaves (…guess who influenced these last few?!), Bats for Lashes, Husky Rescue…oh and of course, The (Mighty) Silverbacks Blues Band
The Blues Brothers! The greatest film ever ever EVER! Spinal Tap, The Last Waltz, Grizzly Man, City of God, Donnie Darko, Moulin Rouge, Amores Perres, Before Sunrise, After Sunset, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic, Jungle Book, Amelie, Go, Brick, Swingers, 21 Grams, Mar Adentro, Waynes World, Airplane... and naturally all the classic films of yester-year like The Goonies (when staying awake/conscious past the Truffle Shuffle that is), Lost Boys, ET, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, etc etc
The Mighty Boosh, I’m Alan Partridge, KMKYWAP (a-ha!), Arrested Development (got to love those chicken dances), Scrubs, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Popworld (in the Simon days, obviously), Freaks and Geeks, Lost, Garth Merenghi’s Darkplace, those rubbish-and-yet-strangely-compelling Channel 4 Top 100 programmes (featuring, inevitably, Kate Thornton and Paul Morley)…and 24. I love 24. I really, really love 24.
Books I've read recently: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak; Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami; Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon; The Plague by Albert Camus; Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro; The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; Gods of Rock by Robert Fitzpatrick; Favourite books: (at the moment, anyway)..Veronika Decides To Die by Paulo Coelho (not nearly as depressing as it sounds) and His Dark Materials trilogy
The person that made maltesers, the person that started Mad For It at the Pav Tav (in its former glory years, anyway), the person that came up with the concept for Lionel Ritchie’s Hello video...and Jack Bauer.