If you’ve been around a while you might know Neil from his Drooghi and RatherNotSay days. If you’re younger you might have seen his Veras shoes out and about. When we decided to mither some people about things they like, Neil was one of the first that came to mind. He’s on the same page as us. He likes swearing for a start. Everyone should swear. While all our extensive communication has been via email so far we reckon the word “fuck” works best in the South Wales accent (we assume) Neil uses to talk to people in real life. So not only is he good at making nice shoes, he’s also a proficient swearer. He’s also got some nice things. Read his Favourite Fives to find out what they are.
Item of clothing
Remember Jeff Goldblum in The Fly when he opens his wardrobe and he has the all the same gear in there. Well that’s me. I just have Sky Blue Uniqlo Shirts, one for each day, maybe change it to White on a Sunday for church. For £20 they’re spot on. I don’t need a label anymore, I’m 42 for fucks sake. Saying that, 10 years ago I was wearing SixEight everyday but then it was free. So yeah, Uniqlo shirts and obviously, Veras shoes. (One paragraph before a plug, that’s not bad for me)
Book
I have hundreds of books, stuff I have acquired over the last 20 years. Some classics and some real shite. I’ve got Burroughs, Trocchi and Satre on one shelf and Men In Black, Zulus and Cocky ‘Curtis Warren’ on another. So there’s bit of variety there.
ASK THE DUST – John Fante
LES MISERABLES – Victor Hugo
SOUL CREW – Tony Rivers & David Jones
Music
I grew up listening to Sham 69 and Sex Pistols courtesy of an older brother and Motown due to older sisters. So not a bad introduction to music. As for my own personal taste, I think I’m stuck in the early 90s with these choices below. Most of the time though it’s listening to my missus’ music or Lady Gaga and Rhianna at full blast due to having two daughters. Trouble is, they’re 30 and 35..
BLUE LINES – Massive Attack
SCREAMADELICA – Primal Scream
STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON – NWA
Art
CHER GUEVARA Scott King
Saying that, I got a framed pic of the newspaper EL PAIS the day after Spain won the World Cup, I was living over there at the time so I was pretending I was Spanish (because unlike any other country I know, we haven’t qualified for a major tournament since 1958 and we are not likely to either with the current manager).
Also, not sure if it qualifies as art but I have had a book for years (of pics) by Richard Billingham on his parents. It’s called Ray’s a Laugh. It’s proper.
Something else
A SSUR cushion. Had it from New York (I think around 2001). We visited Russ Karablin’s studio and had a load of tees and bits from him. We were just ‘hanging out’ in Soho NYC. I think that was the term back then. It was at that point that I thought I was going to make it in this crazy world of fashion. I thought the future was gonna be all skinny lattes, man-bags and conference calls. Ha, how wrong could I be!!
And if you decide to add a favourite film in there I’d go for ‘Grand Slam’. It’s a Welsh film on rugby. It’s fucking class.
