FirstWord ADRIAN EDMONDSON
The star of Bottom and The Young Ones has left the mohawk at home and gone on the road with his band The Bad Shepherds, playing ‘punk songs on folk instruments’. We dropped in for a chat about pork sausages, Eton and 80s TV
First record you ever bought Val Doonican – ‘Delaney’s Donkey’ (I was only nine!) First film you saw that really moved you I was sick during Jaws.
Last lie you told Eight inches.
First movie you ever went on a date to Born To Boogie with Marc Bolan. It didn’t work! Last time you cried I’ve been crying all week after the death of a close friend.
First thing you do when you’ve got time off work I become a vegetable. I prefer working to not working. I get bored easily. Last great meal you cooked My famous sausage pasta (I cook it all the time). Tomato, mascarpone, parmesan, fresh peas, penne pasta, good pork sausage.
Last extravagant purchase you made A Leica camera.
First crush Wendy (I forget her second name). It was at junior school. She never looked at me even once. Last book you read One Day by David Nicholls. It includes a brilliant satire on 80s TV.
First great piece of advice you were given Do it yourself.
Last time you were star struck I met George Harrison at a dinner. He’s the only famous person I’ve ever met who had something genuinely special about him. Most ‘stars’ turn out to be just human beings (which isn’t what you want from a star, is it?) First thing you’d do if you ran the country Close Eton School – that would stop the rot of idiot toffs.
Last meal on earth — what would it be Steak and chips at Brasserie Lipp in Paris.
First song you’ll sing at karaoke ‘Ballroom Blitz’ by Sweet.
Last time you exploited your position to get something What position? First time you realised you were famous I was chased down Shaftesbury Avenue by a group of girls in 1982 – it
WeLike The things making our world just that little bit better
was the first and last time it ever happened (fame is very fleeting).
Last time someone criticised your work Criticism hurts so much I tend to think it happens every day, but it’s probably just that cruel words linger . . . First three words your friends would use to describe you Idiot, twat, (sort of) fun.
Last time you made an impulse buy and regretted it More or less every bit of clothing I buy. First concert you ever attended Procol Harum early 70s Leeds Uni – it
took three encores to persuade them to play ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ – the only song we’d gone to hear. Bastards.
Last time you bought someone flowers For my mother’s birthday in February. First thing you think of when you wake up in the morning What have I forgotten?
Last thing you think of before you go to sleep I must remember to . . . ■ Adrian Edmondson and The Bad Shepherds, Classic Grand, Glasgow, Fri 4 Jun. www.thebadshepherds.com
■ We like when the website we use most times per day also, rather handily, becomes the one that we find the most distracting. So when Google turned its homepage into an
interactive Pac-Man game the other day,
we watched in computer-
hypnotised delight as the hours of productivity upped and flew out the window.
We were simply not prepared to let those bloody ghosts get the better of us. In the mood for playing now (the sight of a bit of May sunshine does all sorts of things to us, even causing an inexplicable urge to listen to Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince) we also found ourselves rather liking the essential Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co (www.superherosupplies.com). These guys will sell you capes, gallons of
invisibility, mind probes and forcefield shampoo, among other things, including a canister of chaos. So. Many. Problems. Solved.
Oh, and the boys at Rockstar Games have done us proud again. Red Dead Redemption is basically Grand Theft Autobut with cowboys this time. Try notliking that.
2 THE LIST 27 May–10 Jun 2010