The food of life: music
Classical
I have always liked music, in various forms. Even while in my cot, my brothers and sisters were playing trios etc. in the next room, and I started learning the piano and violin quite early, progressing up to leader of the local Thanet Youth Orchestra, co-leader of the King's School Orchestra (with the late Clarence Myerscough), member of the Isle of Thanet Symphony Orchestra, member of the Kent County Youth Orchestra (with whom I travelled to Italy -- playing under Claudio Abbado -- and America), and soloist in a few concerts. After leaving school I found very few opportunities to play any music, until I discovered the Thanet Light Orchestra: now I enjoy their weekly "rehearsals" in Broadstairs. I also enthusiastically play chamber music with local friends, and for many years won the "small ensemble" prize in the Thanet Music & Drama Festival. Anyone in the Thanet area who would like to play some music, have a look at the Music in Thanet site I created. Incidentally, if I had to name some favourite composers they would tend to be from the Eastern side of Europe, e.g. Khachaturian, Smetana, Dvorak, etc.
Non-classical
In contrast, my teen years were marked by extreme rebellion and instead of settling for pop pap like Duran Duran I went the whole hog... the first non-classical record I bought was a single by the anarchist punk group Cr@ss, called "How does it feel?". The song was an attack on Thatcher and the Falklands War (the title continues "... to be the mother of a thousand dead?", with reference to the sinking of the Argentine ship "General Belgrano") and various attempts were made by Conservative Party MPs to ban it. I never had a chance to see Crass, but did see various punk-ish groups including The Damned, The Clash, Nina Hagen (at the Roskilde Festival), etc. I managed to go to gigs with three ex-members of the Sex Pistols and finally got to see them perform as a group 20 years later on their "Filthy Lucre" tour along with the Buzzcocks, Iggy Pop, etc., as well as reaching row two of the mêlée at their Crystal Palace jubilee concert in 2002. A later concert in Brixton was disappointing though.
The day before I first went to Japan I still had a green mohican, but as I thought it might be seen as rather unusual and land me in all sorts of trouble I shaved it off, and remained "bald" for the next year or so -- a fact which actually stood me in good stead, as everyone assumed I was a monk and therefore gave me the vegetarian food I desired. Only later -- once I had a job -- did I realize that there were punks in Japan too, and so when Johnny Rotten came to Tokyo with PIL I reverted to a succession of multicoloured mohicans, spikes, and so on. I kept the job.
Punks in Japan are understandably somewhat different from those in Britain, but surprisingly many of them did understand a great deal of punk's anarchist ideals (many of them also just do it for fashion, but there is no denying that that's the same in most countries). While in Tokyo I frequently attended anti-vivisection gigs, environmental rallies, benefit gigs for various victims of the system, etc., with groups like Nue, Nora, These, Genki Baka Gumi, and Hellnation (unfortunately they all disbanded a long time ago, but I would recommend them if you can find any recordings / printed material etc.; one member of Nue later joined Black September). I'd also recommend Anarky's first album -- the energy is great, and the themes for the lyrics are quite similar to those of UK bands. One day I hope to put up some translated lyrics here.
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