Listening to contemporary, popular and alternative music. Reading about contemporary, popular and alternative music. Watching people perform contemporary, popular and alternative music. Attempting to write my own contemporary, popular and alternative music. Writing about contemporary, popular and alternative music for various media forms (see blog for examples). DJing contemporary, popular and alternative music. Watching spoof rockumentaries set in the field of contemporary, popular and alternative music. Going camping in mucky and cold fields, or perhaps on soggy west-country farmland with various other whacked-up hippy's and spoofed-out goofballs who think I'm some kind of wizard, and all in the aid of the outdoor viewing of contemporary, popular and alternative music. Golf.
Leslie Nielsen, Lloyd Bridges, Bob Dylan, George Orwell, Jess from The Real Hustle.
New Bands like The Pigeon Detectives, The Sunshine Underground, Klaxons (their shit live though), Last Gang, Lupen Crook and probably some others with the odd good song, followed up with a disappointing album. I like to dance to the sounds and mixes of Erol Alkan, The Rapture, Justice, Simian Mobile Disco, LCD Soundsystem, Alex Gopher, Felix De Housecat, jazz house, techno (fuck it if it isn't cool) and whatever floats my boat. Classic bands like The Clash, The Beatles, The Yardbirds, The Kinks, Oasis, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, The Pogues, The Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, MC5, The Sonics, Love, The White Stripes, The Strokes, Talking Heads, Blur, The Sex Pistols, The Doors, The Clockwork Orange, The 13th Floor Elevators, The Grateful Dead, The Small Faces and lots more that I can't remember. I'm also big into Bowie and Dylan (Dylan mainly) Soul/funk and stuff like Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Parliament, The Commodores, James Brown, Sly and The Family Stone. Old Hip-Hop like NWA, Cypress Hill, Public Enemy etc but also DJ Shadow, Jurrasic 5 and The Streets first album. I'm big into folk, blues, country and rock and roll such as Johnny Cash, Elvis, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Hank Williams, Odetta, John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson (the legend at least), Little Richard, Chuck Berry (it seems to help if your a paedophile in rock and roll), The Band and probably some others too. I also like lots of other people.I also quite like Bob Dylan.
Anything with gratuitois violence in it or Leslie Nielsen.
Documentaries about genuinly interesting things ie not about someone whoses lost a leg and now wants to run the London marathon. Sky Sports News, MTV2, VH1 Classic, The Sopranos, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Futurama, Football and most other sports (even the boring ones like snooker are good with the sound down), The Mighty Boosh, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python, Some Mothers do 'av 'em, Peep Show, The Office and the greatest show on Earth, The World's Most Amazing Videos on Bravo. Also, programmes about Crabbing, survival in desolate places and cooking (such as The F-word). I hate reality TV.
Franz Kafka, Hunter S. Thompson, Will Self and other such wierdos. I also like reading The Metro while enduring public transport, Mojo music magazine, murder stories (a bit of trashy James Patterson) and various bits of non-fiction by John Pilger and other decent journalists. I also read lots of music based non-fiction, my favorites being Chronicles by Bob Dylan, Morrissey and Marr: the Severed Alliance by Johnny Rogan, Songs that Saved your Life by Simon Goddard and Manchester, England by Dave Haslam. I'm also a big fan of Mr Nice by Howard Marks.
Bob Dylan