If you're not convinced...watch this...

Mike Skinner goes making crop circles at glastonbury. Very funny moments in this.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

When I was 6 years old...

My mum took me out to buy a birthday present. We passed all of the toy shops and went to a fairly understated charity shop in town. It was full of the usual tat, old sorry books and a lot of musky jackets.

My mum passed all of these and whilst holding her hand she walked round the shop, picked up two items and went straight to the till. My birthday present was complete.

One item was this…a black trilby.

And the second was this…

I had no idea what my motives where because at 6 years old I had shown a passing interest in music, and MJ in particular…but never enough to go out and buy the kit.

When we got home we went into the living room. She made a big deal about getting ready to watch the video. I put on a raggy white jacket passed down and used occassionally for weddings in an attempt to look like a smart kid. With this, the hat and my school trousers I was looking the part.

My mum put the video on, closed the doors and left the room. This happened about every two weeks. Same routine, she would get me dressed up, plonk me in the living room and leave me to it. I’m unashamed to admit also that for the entirety of Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, i danced my 6 year old heart out from start to finish. Loved every second of it. 93 minutes of singing, dancing, shouting, wooping and jumping up and down as MJ goes on his adventure and sang his songs.

I never questioned why my mum did this every two weeks until recently. I enjoyed it so much there was never reason to add context. But my mum recently told me it wasn’t just 93 minutes to let me have a right old rock out in the living room. It was also the perfect amount of time to cut the grass and have a sleep. Safe in the knowledge that her 6 year old was too busy dancing, and worn out by the end of it to add another hour to the time whilst i slept it off.

Through all of this routine though, my mum may have got a nice bit of time to get things done without me hassling her. But little did she know by putting me infront of that telly, she had cemented all the music, moves and magic that bloke did. He made me appreciate everything about music and put a passion for it all in that 6 year old brain. I’m one of those superfans you hear about, but I just keep it quiet. Unashamed to say it brings tears to my eyes hearing his passing.

Rest in peace you big amazing man.