Movies (see below), books (see below), music (see below),staring out of the window, sitting on the toilet till my legs go to sleep
Sport - football (West Ham), rugby league (Swinton), tennis, darts. Little interest in golf, athletics, swimming (not a sport, something you do to stop from drowning), cricket, any American sports. Actually, I don't know why I put sport, as I do not appear to be that interested in it, which is a bit of a drawback as my column is in the sports section of The Guardian.
Music
Motown, soul, big band, a bit of funk, Bob Dylan, Beatles, Stones, Burt Bacharach - those guys I grew up with. Not averse to Arctic Monkeys - although overhyped - Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, Kooks, and some of the newer stuff that sounds like the older stuff.
Movies
Classic continental cinema of the 1960s - Chabrol, Truffaut, Eric Rohmer, Antonioni (I know how to spell it, I just don't know when to stop), Pasolini, Fellini,Andrzej Wajda, Dusan Makavejev,Polanski, etc.
Also '70s American movies; Carnal Knowledge, Raging Bull, Five Easy Pieces, Play Misty For Me. Any Clint Eastwood, Jack Nicholson, Woody Allen (esp Radio Days, Hannah and Her Sisters)....
Recent films enjoyed: Brokeback Mountain, Anchorman
Television
Seinfeld (I love it, total anorak), Larry Sanders, Extras, The Office, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python, the usual suspects. Don't watch much current TV except for professional purposes
Books
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates (absolute classic), any Philip Roth, John Updike...Classics like Dickens' Great Expectations, Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath, Flaubert Madame Bovary, Maupassant's short stories...
Recently greatly enjoyed We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. Would heartily recommend it to anyone
Heroes
Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Keith Richards (if I look half as good as him when I am 102, I shall be happy), Winston Churchill (complete pisshead, but great patriot), Woody Allen, George Carlin. Just realised I put Keith Richards ahead of Winston Churchill. What kind of a crazy world are we living in?
About me: I present several radio shows in the North of England, write a semi-humorous column for The Guardian newspaper, and am the author of a book called When Will I Be Famous?, which sold respectably for a month or two without troubling either the Booker prize judges or the bestseller lists.
I am currently trying to write another, which is probably why I am on here, it being the most wonderful new displacement activity. In the old days when I was trying to build myself up to do some work, I would have had to be drinking coffee and eating digestive biscuits.
I have four children and a wife, whose name escapes me for the moment, and am well into my middle years, so the main focus of my life at the moment is wondering what size obituary I might get in The Guardian, and looking after my prostate. The best medical evidence indicates (I am not making this up) that cherry tomatoes and masturbation are two of the best things for an elderly prostate, which is fantastic because they are two of my favourite things, right there. I enjoy both as often as possible, although obviously not simultaneously. Those tomato seeds make a bugger of the bedsheets.
thank you for being mymyspace ace and fantastic friend,.... let me know what you're up to and i'll keep you informed on my top showbiz...
my next concert is at the l.m.r.c.a. club in altrincham on 8th march details from mr alston on 07966 189650 or 0161 652 1217.
then i'm off to new york for the first week in april to do - ** 7 shows ** some in-store thingies ** a couple of radio's, and ** a cable telly whatsit.
oh yes,... and i'll be ** "saving coney island" aswell. that's good !.
best regards frank sidebottom www. franksworld. co. uk
p.s. i've just put a flower on ebay.... !!!
p.p.s. here's me live onstage with my mate charlie...
Martin..u single-handedly built up Radio Hallam..u sustained Radio Leeds.. u gave the world Mrs Merton..dead or alive fone-in quizzes...the Bradshaws..Dora Dale...the Scots Elvis and THE FUTOVAR STAIRS..and countless other cheeky pleasures..hope u will soon be back
x
Hi Martin - I've just heard from Steph about Radio Leeds...that's utterly ridiculous. You're the best thing on the radio by far... completely stupid. God, the BBC are just arseholes (yes, ALL of them!! Apart from Steph at Sheffield, of course, who is great). Well, there's no way you'll be off air for long - I just hope you end up broadcasting this side of the Pennines! Yours, utterly cross, Gary and the Slaughterhouse Live team x
Hiya Martin, hope all's well over there. I was gonna ask what happened to the Late Thing archives as I didn't see it on the website anymore, but I suppose the comment below sort of answered that for me. I'm really sorry to hear that. Anyway, best of luck to you, and I'll keep my podcast puntery going as long as you keep doing them. Cheers, man.
yes Martin it's us!! Worksop's finest as championed by a broadcasting legend..you were a tad underwhelmed when you kindly played PULLED UNDER but as you'll see on our myspace it's had over 1,000 plays in 4 weeks..with some great material mixed and sum new songs ready to record there will more Stairs magic coming your way soon............p/s...loving the show steve..(but when do we get our live-in-the-studio session?)
THE FUTOVAR STAIRS
x
Hi Martin - Listening to your superb podcast in Australia, thanks for that... and also a big thank you for introducing me to George Carlin and is it Dora? Still cracking up at her "Spice Girls audition" line when talking about the Beckam's move to Spain. Where can we hear more of Dora?
