Hmm.....firstly, at infants school (awww), at the tender age of 5, the school play was seriously lacking in the woodland animals department...maybe my mop of ringlets gave be a cherub-like appearance, who knows, but somehow, I got asked to do rabbit-duty. I think it was a rabbit anyway, it definately wasn't a badger, I would have remembered a badger...AAANNNYWAY, it was a brown woodland creature I had to represent (no white breast gags, purrr-lease), and brown tights with leotard over the top was the order of the day. I feel sure that the sensation of being encased in fabric led me to my vocation today of clothes-pattern-cutter, as well as the obvious TV associations. I blushed like a woodland animal at the time, and was trying to fight the grin spreading across my face at the time. Ahhhhh happy days
Another time was seeing Phil Oakey out of the Human League, on Top Of The Pops Xmas number one "Don't You Want Me Baby", with more monochrome make up on than the backing singers put together
It jarred me, and I remember thinking "That's soooooo wrong, yet sooooooooo right".
Couple of Months later, my sister decided to make me over as Prince-Charming era Adam Ant, without the trademark white stripe, but with other tribal markings, in red and blue. I blushed again, as you would if you knew your dad was returning home from work
But hey, no harm done
My later experiments and recreations of my sisters maquillage, but with powder paint, introduced me to the fact that I might have sensitive skin....hmmm.
I wasn't a huge fan of Adam Ant, but enough of a fan to run around the lounge chanting the hook line from "The Human beings" from the lp"Kings OF The Wild Frontier" ("Blackfoot - Cheyenne-Cheynne-CROWWW!-APACHE-ARAPO!")
Or as the man himself wrote in the eponymous lp title track "No method in our madness (HEY, HEY, HEY!), Just proud about our manner (HEY HEY HEY !) Antpeople are the warriors (HEY HEY HEY !) Antmusic is the banner !!! (HEY HEY HEY !)
Who said the Eighties wern't inspirational? And don't even get me started on Grandmaster Flash