Music. Writing. Art. Talking. Drinking. Smoking. Gigs. Getting things done. Meeting new people. Seeing new bands, especially local ones. Gazing at the sky. Thinking. Talking to people on MySpace!!!!
Music
Hmm...let's see. Lots! In fact if you want to see what I rate and what I hate see
my amazon reviews
Old stuff like The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Nick Drake, Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin, Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, Patti Smith, Kate Bush, The Fall, Tom Waits, The Stranglers, Joy Division, Neil Young, Nirvana, Tangerine Dream, David Bowie, Sonic Youth, Current 93, Vashti Bunyan. Newer stuff like Grandaddy, Neutral Milk Hotel (my favourite album of ALL time is "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea"), The Beta Band, Modest Mouse, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Nick Cave, Kings of Leon, Queens of the Stone Age, Oasis, Radiohead, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Massive Attack, Black Keys. New stuff like Arcade Fire, The Aliens, Beirut, The National, Arctic Monkeys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Maxïmo Park, Black Angels, Sufjan Stevens, Deerhunter, The Human Value, Larkin Grimm, Four Dead In Ohio, Explosions In The Sky, Tunng, Espers, Eels, The Twilight Sad, Sian Alice Group, Rachel Unthank, Regina Spektor, Smoke Fairies, Elbow, A Place to Bury Strangers, Joanne Newsom, Tool, Sigur Ros, Mumford and Sons, Editors, Fleet Foxes, TV On The Radio, Enablers, Mr Bones and the Dreamers.
As you can see very varied. I also listen to classical music though not as often as I used to.
When I was a teenager these were the bands I went to see live...as far as I remember it: Black Sabbath, Hawkwind (three times), Motorhead (twice - my hearing never recovered in my right ear...), Dr Feelgood, The Inmates, UFO, Saxon (twice), Lindisfarne, The Blues Band, Magnum, Michael Schenker Group, Gillan, April Wine, Krokus, Girlschool, Angelwitch, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard (the most boring band in the history of the world), Jameson Raid (twice) - I'm sure there were more but I can't remember them now
In my 20s I used to frequent the best club in the Black Country - JBs in Dudley - not the converted cinema it is now housed in but the original 'shed' behind Pathfinder. Unfortunately as I was invariably drunk when I went there I haven't the foggiest idea of any of the bands I may have seen there (though The Hamsters spring to mind)....too many cans of Red Stripe…
I've started going to gigs again with a crowd of similar aged folks (anybody want to tag along with us - they're welcome!).
Here's all the bands/acts I’ve seen recently (some brilliant, some total crap but they're all listed here nevertheless) - Ace Bushy Striptease, Action Replay, Alela Diane, The Aliens, Amusement Parks on Fire, And What Will Be Left Of Them, Anne Boleyn, Anyone For Shark, Arcade Fire, Arcadian Kicks, The Arcane Parade, The Archives, Arctic Monkeys, Asleep Beneath Volcanoes, The Authors, Babel, Barnesy, The Beat, The Beautiful South, The Beep Seals, Betty & The Id, Big Ice Gem, The Big Pink, Billy the Kid, Bi-Polar Baby, BirdEatsbaby, Björk, The Black & Reds, Black Angels, The Black Apples, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Blisst, Bombdog, Born Ruffians, Breeders, Bridge 55, Broken Mile, Broken Records, Bugners Eye, The Carletons, The Carter Manoeuvre, Casiokids, Cat Power, The Celturian, Century Man, Cheka, Chris Wallbank and the Cowards, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Cobweb Dilemmas, Cold War Kids, Come in Tokyo, The Concept:MK, The Conscripts, Copious, Cozimnot!, CRC, The Cribs, Dead Authors, The Dead Fish, Dead Letter Office, Deano, Death Cab For Cutie, Dennis, Detroit Social Club, Diamond Lil, The Disco Contenders, The Dixsons, Django Django, Dogfight Revolution, Doves, Down in Paris, DRAG, D-Tox, Echolounge, Editors, Eels, The E-Go's, Elbow, The Electric Animals, Elmo Catkins, Elvis Perkins, Emmy the Great, Envy & Other Sins, The Epics, Espers, Eureka Machines, Everett, Exit Calm, The Falzones, Fans of Faye, February March, The Fiji Mermaids, The Fillmore Gears, The Filthy Habits, For A Minor Reflection, The Forces of Van Der Waals, Four Dead In Ohio, Free School, Freelance Mourners, Frightened Rabbit, The Fun House Robots, Gamble Gamble, The Ganders, Gary Go, The Gaslight Anthem, The Gazelles, The Getaways, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Glass Lashes, Glasvegas, Godwits, Goldblade, Good Shoes, Grinderman, Guile, Guillemots, Gurdan Thomas, Gurrumul, Half Day Closing, Hansom Pilot, The Harrisons, Hawkwind, The Heathers, HINGe, Hjaltalin, The Hoi Polloi, The Hold Steady, The Hoop Group, Horowitz, Hugh Cornwell, Icelandic Traffic Badgers, iLiketrains, In The Fur, Is I Cinema, Isolated Atoms, I Wish I Knew, The Jaayz, Jackpike, James Capper, James Summerfield, Jazz Thrash Assassin, Jet Pack, Jimm Zorn, Joanna Newsom, Jodie and the Jet Plane, Joe Gideon and the Shark, John Lawrence, Johnny Foreigner, Joss Stone, The Joy Formidable, Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian, KateGoes, The Kausters, Keiran Goddard, Kid Captain, Kidnapper Bell, Kill It Kid, King of Conspiracy, The Kings Shilling, Kristy Gallacher, Kula Shaker, Kyle, The Labelles, Lady Rain, Laura Louise, The Lazy Lizards, The Lean Yellows, Leitmotif, Liechtenstein, The Lieutenant's Mistress, The Light Cascades, Lime Chalks, The Lines, Lipstick Gypsies, Long Road Ghosts, Los Campesinos, The Lowlifes, LP45, Manchester Orchestra, Manic Street Preachers, March of the Union, Mark Morriss, Marnie Stern, Martina Topley-Bird, Massive Attack, Maxïmo Park, Mellow Peaches, Mexicolas, Mirrors, Miss Halliwell, Mississippi Moon, Modest Mouse, The Monotones, Mothers Jam, Motiv, The Motive, Mr Bones and the Dreamers, Mr Cricket, Mumford and Sons, My Secret Life, The National, The Naturals, Neil Halstead, NewSpeak Divide, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Nine Black Alps, Noah and the Whale, The No-Tomorrows, Okkervil River, Old Ions, Old School Tie, On-screen Heroes, Outspoken, Panda Bear Madness, Passenger, Paul Weller, Pedro Stevens, People's Republic Of Mercia, Peter and the Wolf, Plain White T's, Polly Scattergood, Pony Chair Black, Porpoise, Pressure, The Pretenders, The Priory, Queens of the Stone Age, Radiohead, Ragdoll, The Razorbacks, Red Light Company, Red Lite Run, Regina Spektor, Regis, Reverie, Richard Kikonyogo, Riders on the Storm, The Rivers Presley Set, The Robot Disaster, The Romance of Ballooning, Rosie & the Goldbug, Ross Clarke and the Scarfs Go Missing, The Rubikons, Rudi's New Outfit, The Rumble Strips, Sabotage Left, Sarcastic Comment, Science vs Romance, Seven Day Weekend, The Shore Affliction, Showdown City, Sian Alice Group, Sick Fiction, Sicum, Sigur Ros, The Sitting Prettys, Sky Larkin, Slow Club, Soldier, Sonic Delays, Sons and Daughters, Sons of Noel and Adrian, Soprano, Stars and Sons, Stone Sour, The Stranglers, St Vincent, The Subkicks, Sugar Suicide, Sunrise Over Europe, Sunset Cinema Club, Susie B, Suzy Condrad, The Sweethearts, Swift Flasby, Syd Arthur, Team Waterpolo, Télégramme, Theatre of the Absurd, Their Hearts Were Full of Spring, Theoretical Girl, This Season's Promise, Thom Yorke, Tim and Sam's Tim and the Sam Band, Timothy Parkes, Tool, The Tricks, Truckers of Husk, Tsien, Tukazon, Tunng, Tunng with Tinariwen, TV On The Radio,The Twang, The Twilight Sad The Ultraphonics, Underflow, Unique Destruction, Untitled Musical Project, UXL, The Vehicles, Velvet Texas Cannonball, Vena Carva, Vixens, Vix n the Kix, The Vortex, The Walkmen, Wave Machines, We Have Band, White Lies, The Who, Who Needs Heroes, Wilcox, Wild Palms, Wildbirds and Peacedrums, Wiseacre, Woods, The Yipes, Young Runaways, Your Biggest Fanclub, Zutons,
OK this may seem rather "anal" but like I said, I forgot all of them I saw before and this time, if it's written down, I won't :)
Movies
Lots. Very varied. Wicker Man, Casablanca, ET, Jaws, Forrest Gump - yes I like it! - Alien, The Third Man, The Sting, The Big Lebowski, Close Encounters, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Pulp Fiction, Groundhog Day, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Memento, Fargo, Shawshank Redemption, Manhattan, Downfall, Schindler's List, Platoon, Night of the Generals, Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, AI, 2001, Usual Suspects, Blade Runner, The Ice Storm, Brazil, In The Bedroom.....loads more...
Television
Simpsons, Futurama, Monty Python, QI, I Claudius, The Office, Fast Show, Reeves and Mortimer, Our Friends From the North, Heroes, Lost - I know its crap but addictive. Anything intelligent....so not much TV then...
Books
Orwell, Thomas Hardy (especially Return of the Native), David Mitchell (especially Cloud Atlas), non-fiction - mainly history, popular science (Dawkins, Sagan) and politics, Ian Kershaw's magnificent biography of Hitler, Norman Davies' histories of Europe and Britain. I Claudius, Slaughterhouse 5, Catcher in the Rye, Edgar Allan Poe, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Ray Bradbury (Martian Chronicles, Illustrated Man, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes), Perfume, Money, Clockwork Orange, The Handmaid's Tale (seems to be a bit of a dystopian theme here!), White Teeth, Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, The Wasp Factory, His Dark Materials, Lord of the Rings, Douglas Adams, Cormack McCarthy - The Road, Iain Banks. Patrick Humphries' excellent biography of Tom Waits
Heroes
Jim Morrison, Charles Darwin, my family, Nelson Mandela, Brian Clough, Alexander the Great, Alex "Hurricane" Higgins, George Best, Marcus Aurelius, my friend Kim, Jeff Mangum, Ian Curtis, Noddy Holder, Tom Waits - not necessarily in that order...
The University of Birmingham
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Graduated: 1997
Student status: Alumni
Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Major: Biological Sciences (Genetics)
1994 to 1997
The Crestwood School
Kingswinford, United Kingdom
Graduated: 1983
Student status: Alumni
Degree: None
About me: Wrong side of 40 unfortunately. I used to work as a nurse at Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley but I gave it up as a bad job when I was 29. Went to Birmingham University to take a degree in genetics and they have only just got rid of me :) Currently a post doc scientist in Plant Genetics at the University of Warwick. I love music and had a promotions "company" for a while and managed a couple of great local bands. All behind me now as I look for something new to keep me occupied :) I'm very happily married to Mrs Mike and we have a young son. I also have a daughter, from my first marriage - she's grown up now. I live in a small village on the edge of the West Midlands conurbation. It's quiet, but it's nice (not a good adjective I know but there is no other word to describe it!)
Who I'd like to meet: I'm not in this for dating!!!!! (see above!) But I'd meet anybody who shares my music interests. Also anyone who has decided that life is for living and not just for letting slip through their fingers. Anybody into raging against the dying of the light.
