The Story of The Streets by Skinner Mike

Author:Skinner, Mike [Skinner, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

‘ It was totally cannibalized by the end, which made me quite angry’

My dad was really into cars, and the rest of the family was too. We used to go to classic auto shows at the Billing

Aquadrome. I always really enjoyed that when I was twelve or thirteen, because my dad would teach me to drive by letting me

manoeuvre his car (which would have been a Montego or Sierra, vehicles that may themselves one day attain classic status) around

the field.

My cousins all had motorbikes, which they also used to ride around the shows too. I used to really want one of those, but

something just got in the way … I suppose all my money was going in one direction, and I was too focused on my music to be

thinking about life on the open road. My brother had no such distractions, though, and he was madly into it.

He had a knackered old VW Beetle, which my dad eventually bought off him and gave to me for my seventeenth birthday. It

was left in the garage for a while, because I couldn’t have lessons while I was still having epileptic fits (I couldn’t have afforded

them anyway, because I was saving all my Burger King money for studio equipment and occasional trips to The Steering Wheel).

My brother put the money towards buying another Beetle for himself – a pink one, which was actually really out of character for him

– and then proceeded to remove all the bits from mine that his needed. It was totally cannibalized by the end, which made me quite

angry.

At that point in my life I definitely imagined myself as someone who would eventually learn to drive, and I think if I’d stayed

in Birmingham I would have. You’ve got to have a car there really. The nature of the public transport system requires it.

Once I’d got to London, though, there wasn’t really any need. I had about three lessons when I was twenty-six, but I never

really got into it. Wiley bought a Bentley once, but he left it outside somewhere in East London and it got nicked. Which is another

reason why I think that kind of Alan Sugar or Simon Cowell in-the-back-of-a-Rolls-Royce-Phantom vibe is still probably the best

way to go if you’re determined to make an impression.

When you’re in your late teens, a car is a status thing. It’s a way of saying, ‘Look at me, I’m old enough to drive’, and that’s

part of what motivates most people to learn. But if by some quirk you push through that barrier and come out the other side in your

mid-twenties, people know that you’re old enough to own a car by then, it just so happens that you don’t.

The random nature of that life-choice is never more pleasurably apparent than when you’re driving a Ferrari around Las

Vegas. We rented it in Ted’s name and then I drove it – I knew I could drive, because my dad had taught me. The whole experience

was just really fun. The car was a red 355,

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