Class Actor: My Autobiography

Preface ix Prologue: Close to the Edge xiii Act 1: Before 1 We Ain't Somers Town, We're King's Cross 3 2 A Bit of Paul McCartney's Hair 10 3 At that Moment, Damon Albarn's Ears Must Have Pricked Up in His Mother's Womb.... 18 4 My First Memory of Actually Going to a Football Match is of Throwing Snowballs at the Former England Captain Billy Wright 24 5 School of Rock 31 6 A New Dawn 38 7 Spitting at the Acton Hilton 44 8 Exit, Pursued by an Elephant 50 9 God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to Me 56 10 From ' the Court ' to the Court 62 11 Out of My Brian on the Train 70 12 In the Basement, with Peter Purves and Tom Waits 76 13 Goodbye to ballsache High 82 14 ' David Bailey - Who's He?' 88 15 The Scum Also Rises 94 16 Inside Bob Hoskins' Mud Hut 101 17 Tony Sher Sticks His Oar In 108 18 Taxi for Mr John Lydon 115 Act ii: After 19 Up the Alley, with Leslie Ash 20 The Boys in Black 130 21 A Poor Man's Rodgers & Hammerstein 138 22 'Viola!' 143 23 '...Or Will You Just, Politely, Say Goodnight?' 149 24 China in Our Hands 156 25 'What Was this Thing from Outer Space?' 162 26 Danny Daniels Take It to the Bridge 168 27 'Baby, I'm Your Meantime Man' 176 28 Clarkey's Angels 184 29 Snookere Loopy 190 30 Tony Sher Sticks His Oar In, Again 198 31 Close to (the) Edge 206 32 'Blow High, Blow Low' 213 33 The Bernard Cribbins of My Generation 220 34 Goodbye Shepherd's Bush, Hello Madison Square Garden 227 35 Next Stop, Albert Square 235 36 We Ain't Footlights, We's Anna Scher 243 Epilogue: 'Has Your Film Been on Telly Yet?' 251 Acknowledgements 257 Picture Credits 258 Index 259