5 Facts - Ian Wilkinson

 25th Jun 2019

I hail from the north east of England and moved to Scotland back in early 1996. Having been lucky enough to have lived and enjoyed life in London, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle and Manchester, it took me all of two weeks to realise that Edinburgh/Scotland was a place I wanted to drop anchor.

We set up W&A in early 2003. Which still feels like last Thursday…. Here are 5 things you may not know about me:

1) I shouldn’t be here today. As a child I was electrocuted (nearly died), had my throat torn open by a Labrador (nearly died again), broke my arm, collar bone and a suffered from a perforated ear drum. Plus loads of other less-terminal sport-related accidents. In fact most of my formative years were spent in A&E. My friends climbed trees; I fell out of them.

2) I love live music. Between the age of 14-20 I saw c. 200 bands including the Smiths in early 1984. I got drunk with quite a few of them (getting drunk is always better than being drunk). My favourite music remains the early post-punk scene: the Fall, Chameleons, Nick Cave, Joy Division and Bunnymen.  I steadfastly refuse to grow up. My last gig was the exceptionally talented and enigmatic Michael Buble in Glasgow, but this was under extreme duress.

3) Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Verona rank amongst my favourite cities but Germany is my favourite country. My long-term goal is to travel more.

4) You won’t find me on Facebook. I much prefer the intimacy and sincerity of a few close friends rather than 500 feigned online “friends”.

5) I hate lists.