Inspirations

Evening strumpets,

I have been asked, on occasion, what music has influenced me. Growing up, My Dad, King Kenny, had been a drummer in the Big Bands in the Fifties. A student of Max Abrahms, he had toured the world, performing with the likes of Nat King Cole, Paul Anka, and more. Closer to home he had worked with Tommy Cooper, Eric Sykes (Who`s office, shared with Spike Milligan at the time, had been a couple of doors down from Dad`s Agents), Peter Glaze, and for a couple of years as Tessie O Shea`s drummer in her trio. He performed on the soundtrack of Moby Dick, and The Thirty Nine Steps, and as such got to meet Gregory Peck and John Huston.

When the theatre he had been performing in burnt down and ruined his drums, he decided he`d had enough, and moved back to Middlesbrough, where he has lived ever since. As a bit of trivia, the guy who took over from my Dad in the band, eventually was the person used for Animal in the Muppets, so my Dad could have been Animal.

So he listened to Francis Albert (as he insisted he be called), whom you may know better as Frank Sinatra, and Joe Loss, along with Glen Miller and Count basie.

Mam loved Des O Connor and Glen Campbell. I still cannot listen to Witchita Linesman without thinking of her in the front room of the tiny house we lived in. Special music indeed.

My first inkling that there may be a band out there called The Beatles was via an LP my Sister had called "All this and World War II" which featured artist`s covering Beatles classics. Thus for the longest time I thought Leo Sayer sang I Am The Walrus, and that Bryan Ferry sang She`s leaving home! The Sister I`ve just mentioned, loved Northern Soul, and Motown, so there was that going around too.

Big Brother was a Skinhead, and loved Ska, so it was not unusual for me to hear Selector, The Specials, Liquidators, and later The Angelic Upstarts on a regular basis. Other Sister was a Punk, so I was introduced to Crass, The Pistols, Siouxsie, and The Buzzcocks.

Me, growing up, I loved Michael Jackson,Adam Ant, And Madness. But the first time I felt that the person, writing the song I was listening to, knew what it was like to be me, was when I first heard "The Queen is Dead" by the Smiths. After this the first time I heard music which made me very excited was when I heard "Doolittle" by the Pixies.

Which I guess is a long way to explain how I come to be writing stuff like this.



Learn something new.

Mark.