TRIVIA

MIKI : I used to do Lush vocal soundchecks singing 'A handful of smarties goes
a long long way', 'Come in C&A, see the things you're looking for' and
my personal favourite 'Richard shops are filled with all the pretty things, such a lot of pretty things to wear'.

Also, the Kelloggs ad where everyone shook the box "only kelloggs have, extra vitamins (shake, shake), to make their cornflakes the best there's ever been. Oh, they are the ones to give your family, one full quarter of these vitamins they need. There is iron too, and the sunshine taste. So it's smart to start (shake,shake) with kelloggs cornflakes (shake shake), with kelloggs cornflakes...Oh god make it stop"

On her famous flaming red hair ; "The hair-dye was by Directions and called Poppy Red."

Fears/Phobias ? "I have a vague fear of bridges, but this is probably linked to my vertigo

"My mum, Yasuko Nagazumi, was an actress and had a very small role in You Only Live Twice (me too - she was 3 months pregnant). She was also in Space 1999, The Protectors and The New Avengers. And a film called Wombling Free which I was very excited about at the time because I was about 9 and got to meet Bernard Cribbins.

Funnily enough, Tim Friese-Green (who produced Sweetness and Light) was the engineer who worked with Mike Batt on the Wombles records. And Peter Felstead, who became our manager during Lovelife, played one of the furry critters and had to dress up in a specially-made suit when The Wombles went on tour."

"I recently found out a really weird thing. There’s a new documentary out about Joy Division and someone sent me a link and I recognised the bloke who directed/filmed it because Grant Gee is quite a strange name. I went out with him for about 5 minutes when I was (I think) 16 years old. Maybe 15. All I can remember is going up to Plymouth where his parents ran a pub and we went round to a mate’s house and there were all these people doing hot-knives in the kitchen and one of them got so stoned he came in his pants. I’ve got a funny feeling that I didn’t tell my dad where I was going (we didn’t speak much by then) and he ended up calling the police who arrived at the Plymouth pub asking whether I had been sold into slavery."

On Chris : "Chris was originally in a band called A Touch of Hysteria – There is an album available . Kerry (Taylor), Chris’s best mate would know all the other punk bands that Chris was in.

(So Miki kindly made contact with Kerry who spoke to me and gave me an overview of Chris's early musical career )

Kerry: "Chris started off from about the age of 12 years old in a punk band called the Infection and then Panik,this would have been late 79-80,he loved all kinds of music but punk rock was his great passion. His record collection was vast,he had every obscure punk single you could think of. In about 1982 he and some school friends formed the now legendry touch of hysteria,Chris on drums,Francis on guitar (that was Chris's brother) ,Alec Muir on bass and Paul Craighton on vocals.The band were very political,and part of the anarchist punk scene although they had a different sound than the tyipical Crass type bands.Their sound was influenced a lot by bands like the Pack Of Lies, the Mob, who chris adored,and Crisis.The band finished in 84,and Chris joined the Les Turds,another punk band,with me on bass,Stan the hippy on guitar,Jasper Cream shit vocals and James Bradley vocals.The band played a lot locally and allways pulled a big crowd.When Les Turds ended Chris went on to north London poly and well, the rest is history.From when I met him at school in 1980 up until his death, we remaind freinds as did every one else from that time,Chris Acland was the nicest most gentle person you could ever meet,all the boys wanted to look like him and all the girls loved him. In all my time of freindship with him i never heard any one speak bad of him,...ever