Placebo are brilliant, I especially like the stuff on their second album, 'Without You I'm Nothing.' My favourite songs are, 'Teenage Angst,' 'Pure Morning, ‘You don't care about us,' 'The Crawl,' 'Every You Every Me,' and 'My Sweet Prince.' Pictured on the left is 'Brian Molko' (guitar, vocals.) The band is also made up of Steve Hewitt, (drums,) and Stefan Olsdal, (bass.) They are hard to label. Brian was quoted as saying of his music, 'I think I am quite a misunderstood songwriter - all the bile and vitriol and wickedness people believe is directed by me towards other people, but they are often directed from other people towards be and I am being extremely self-critical. ‘There is predictably loads of Placebo info out there on the internet. Anything I could write here you could find somewhere else, so I won't!!

Jeff Buckley (see right,)
..is probably my favourite artist. He has an angelic voice and his songs are really uplifting and quite haunting. Unfortunately he died at the age of thirty, in a freak drowning accident in the Mississippi just as he was doing his best stuff. His father was Tim Buckley, although he barely knew him. My favourite album is 'Grace' which was his only proper studio album, although 'Sketches for my Sweetheart the Drunk,' a posthumous album is excellent too. Some of his best songs I think are, 'Lilac Wine,' 'Grace,' 'Hallelujah,' 'Nightmares by the sea,' and 'Vancouver,' Some of his influences included Bob Dylan, PiL, Velvet Underground, The Pixies, Allen Ginsberg and Kurt Cobain. James Dean Bradfield, (Manics) said of him, 'I saw him at Dublin Tivoli in 1994 and it was as close to spiritual as I'd ever like to get.' Jeff Buckley was once quoted as saying, 'my soul welcomes extraordinary experience: possibly dangerous, possibly stupid.'

Since the release of the current album, 'Celebrity Skin' I have started to likeHole. Pictured (left,) is Courtney Love, ex-wife of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. Hole have released two previous albums, 'Pretty on the Inside,' and 'Live Through This,' as well as 'My Body, The Hand Grenade.' The band currently consists of Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson, Melissa Auf der Maur, and Samantha Maloney. Courtney was quoted as saying, (amongst many other things!) 'Don’t be bitter and mean cos you don't fit in, it's a GIFT. Look at you. you've got your individuality, you don’t have the herd instinct, you can read Neitzsche and understand it. Only dumb people are happy.'

Other favourites of mine include:Inkubus Sukkubus, Skunk Anansie, Nirvana, REM, (right,) The Offspring, Cecil, The Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Green Day, Portishead, Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

The Beach, by Alex Garland, (left)

is one of my favourite books. A contemporary cult novel about a utopian, dope smoking commune in Thailand, which turns slightly pear-shaped. It is a bit of a modern day 'Lord of the Flies,' and is currently being made into a film staring Leonardo De Caprio. It is due out at the end of this year.

William Sutcliffe's book, 'Are You Experienced,' is also written along the 'Western hippie travellers' theme. It takes the piss out of middle class year out students who go travelling in India to 'find themselves!' I would definitely recommend it as a good light hearted read.

Jack Kerouac - On the Road written in 'spontaneous prose' with lots of sex, drugs and bongo drums, it is said to capture the experiences of the 'Beat Generation' of the 1950's.

Rebecca Ray - A Certain Age is a cool, semi-autobiographical account of the trials and tribulations of being a teenager in the 1990's, living in a small, rural town in Wales.

Sophie's World, By J.Gaardner, (right) is about a young girl's adventure through the entire history of Western Philosophy as she struggles to understand her place in the world. There are some quite complex philosophical ideas but they are simply presented. The amount of information that Gaardner manages to cram into this book is amazing!

'The Celestine Prophecy,' James Redford, is a book about an ancient manuscript found in the rain forests of Peru, which contains nine key insights into life itself!

Eddie Izzard, (left) is my favourite funny person. He describes himself as an 'Action Transvestite,' 'Boy Racer' and 'Male Tomboy.' Other people call him ' the best and most inventive absurdist thinker,' who lives in a 'stream-of-consciousness world of cats who wear pants on their head.' He was born is Yemen and has lived in Northern Ireland, Wales and London. He has a birthday the day before mine ;-) On his official web site it says...' Eddie Izzard - Born February 7th Star sign - Aquarius (Jan 20th - Feb 10th ) The great strength of the Aquarius-born is in their visionary nature. They are the people who take the world to the next level; they make people look at things in a different way than before. Their ability to break the rules and move beyond what others think is possible makes them one of the most innovative characters of the Zodiac.' Cool! He says, 'literature always baffled me in school. Shakespeare intimidated me: What does it mean? I thought it had to mean something exact.'

Jared Leto,(right,) best known for his role alongside Claire Danes in My So-Called Life - the 'anti - 90210,' where he plays part-Italian resident 'enigma' Jordan Catalano'. He has also been in a low budget film with Alicia Silverstone, called 'The Cool and the Crazy,' 'Things to do in Denver when you're dead,' again with Claire Danes, 'The Thin Red Line' 'American Psycho' and 'Urban Legend.'

Mr Benn, (pictured) was just the coolest bloke ever. He resided at '52 Festive Road.' In case you have never lived, the general plot was as follows: Sporting a smart suit and bowler hat, Mr Benn would take a trip to his local costume shop. There "as if by magic" a friendly shopkeeper would appear and then would advocate a costume for Mr Benn to try on. Being a genial kind of chap, Mr Benn habitually approved of the shopkeepers choice, and changed into the costume in private, before walking out of an 'alternative door.' This takes him through the threshold and into another reality where he finds he is wearing the perfect apparel for his assigned purpose. His was usually involved in the service of others - helping people and animals in distress, that sort of thing - Deep. At the end of Mr Benn's 15 minute adventure, the shopkeeper would cannily manifest, 'showing him the way' back to the changing room. He would return home, somewhat in awe of the day's events and inevitably he would then find he had a souvenir of his adventure, which served to prove to him that it had not been 'just a dream.'

My Favourite Films:
Withnail and I
The George Orwell adaptation, 'Keep the Aspidistra Flying' with Richard. E Grant and Helena Bonham-Carter,
'Benny & June,' with Johny Depp,
'Blue Juice,' Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Pertwee,'
'The Wizard of Oz.'

Favourite TV Programmes:
'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,'
and of course, 'Mr Benn!!'