Mark Bannister profile picture

Mark Bannister

markbannister1961

About Me

MADE IN WESSEX

...belonging to that intermediate class of contemporary Englishmen which must reconcile an Arts degree with an uncertain provenance
(John le Carré)

Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen
(John le Carré)

My Interests

Listening to music, reading books, watching films, photography, history, museums, libraries, Cambridge spy ring, WW2, Albert Speer, the Fuhrerbunker, Moscow, the Cold War, JFK and RFK assassinations, Howard Hughes, Watergate, Manchester United, nostalgia, the history of art and design, architecture etc.

I'd like to meet:

Annabella Sciorra

Music:

RAMONES w/Dee Dee
THE WHO w/Keith Moon
PINK FLOYD w/Roger Waters
ROLLING STONES
SNUFF, BOB DYLAN, BEN GUNSTONE, THE CLASH/Joe Strummer/Big Audio Dynamite, THE DAMNED/Captain Sensible/Naz Nomad and The Nightmares, "Nuggets", THE ONLY ONES, NEW YORK DOLLS/Johnny Thunders, ARCHIVE, JOHN BARRY, DAVID BOWIE, CHUCK BERRY, SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK/Carbon Silicon, ADAM & THE ANTZ, Sparks, Primal Scream, Motorhead, The Stooges/Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Bee Gees, Tom Waits, Led Zeppelin, The Kinks, Small Faces/Faces/Rod Stewart/Ronnie Wood, Elvis Presley, Suicide, The Rocky Horror Show, The Velvet Underground/Lou Reed, S*M*A*S*H, These Animal Men/The Orphans, Little Richard, Slade, T. Rex, Nina Simone, The Zombies, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Ennio Morricone etc. etc.

Movies:

James Bond films, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Godfather Part III, Apocalypse Now, Magnolia, Ed Wood, Melody, Scorsese films especially GoodFellas, Billy Liar, Lost In Translation, School For Scoundrels (1960), Night Train To Munich, American Graffiti, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Universal Horror films especially Bride Of Frankenstein, Sunset Boulevard, Bubba Ho-Tep, Kubrick films, Cabaret, L.A. Confidential, Midnight Run, Aliens, First Blood, City Of God, Murder By Death, Bruce Lee films, Gladiator, Blade Runner, Children of Men, V For Vendetta, The Warriors, Dawn Of The Dead, the Bourne trilogy, Pink Floyd At Pompeii, Rock 'n' Roll High School, End Of The Century, The Kids Are Alright, This Is Spinal Tap, The Blues Brothers etc. etc.

Television:

The Sopranos, Brideshead Revisited, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, The Prisoner, The World At War, Batman, Cheers, M*A*S*H, Fawlty Towers, The Fast Show, The Office, Extras, I'm Alan Partridge, Garth Marenghi's Dark Place, The Monkees, Rome etc. etc. Mind's a blank, to be honest.

Books:

"The Catcher In The Rye", "Goodbye, Columbus", "Breakfast At Tiffany's", "Brideshead Revisited", "A Handful Of Dust", "Billy Liar", John Irving, Raymond Chandler, John le Carré... Charles Dickens... Damon Runyon... "Please Kill Me", "Kitchen Confidential", "Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth" etc. etc. etc. etc.

Heroes:

Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy... Pete Townshend, Johnny Thunders, Duncan Redmonds, Jack Wild, Eric Cantona, Roy Keane, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Kim Philby, Ken Adam, Edward D. Wood, Banksy, Nikolai Starostin

My Blog

BACK IN THE U.S.S.R.

Here I am, back in Moscow. Got in on Monday night. Driver who collected me from the airport looked a bit like Gary Oldman in "Leon". At least he had two arms, one more than the crazy sonofabitch who d...
Posted by Mark Bannister on Wed, 19 Jul 2006 05:13:00 PST

NEW YORK CITY

So... I've been in New York for about six weeks, been busier than a one legged man in an ass-kicking contest. Brooklyn Heights, say no more. Truman Capote wrote "Breakfast at Tiffany's" in the yellow ...
Posted by Mark Bannister on Tue, 11 Jul 2006 10:42:00 PST

RAMONES EXHIBITION

Last night I went to the Private View for the RAMONES exhibition in London, featuring photography by Roberta Bayley, Adrian Boot, George du Bose, Philippe Carly, Chip Dayton, Danny Fields, Godlis and ...
Posted by Mark Bannister on Thu, 27 Apr 2006 08:08:00 PST