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The 5-minute Interview: Irwin Sparkes, Lead singer, The Hoosiers

'There should be a licence to parent'

Monday 12 November 2007 20:00 EST
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The Hoosiers raced up the charts earlier this year with their debut single, 'Worried About Ray'. With two more top 10 hits and a No 1 album, 'The Trick To Life', under their belts, the trio are now touring the UK. This week they can be seen at the University of London Union. For details, visit www.thehoosiers.co.uk

If I weren't talking to you right now I'd be ...

Probably trying to get random reception on my Apple Mac so I could go on MySpace, or trying to organise a game of five-a-side football for later.

A common misperception of me is ...

People clump us into the "feelgood" bracket with bands like Rooney and The Feeling. They are really good bands but I think we're doing something a bit different. We were tired of pop music as a genre.

A phrase I use too often is ...

"Totally nang". It's old-school for when something is good – like "brill".

I wish that people would take more notice of ...

Schools and parenting. I'm pretty liberal but part of me thinks there should be a licence for parenting.

I am not a politician but if I were ...

I would abolish the House of Lords.

The most surprising thing to happen to me was ...

The first time someone came up and said: "Oh, good singing!" It was only about five or six years ago.

I'm very bad at ...

Keeping quiet.

I'm very good at ...

Killing space and silence with my innate ability to talk.

The best age to be is ...

Any age.

The ideal night out ...

Is a night in. It's as if every night is a night out at the moment. We are doing so many gigs it would be quite nice to just have a night at home with some cocoa.

You know me as a musician but in truer life I'd have been ...

My safety net was always to go into acting. It's ironic as that's not exactly safe, or a net. That and writing.

In moments of weakness I ...

Cover them with the guise of strength.

In a nutshell, my philosophy is this ...

Even a broken clock tells the right time twice a day.

Alice-Azania Jarvis

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