101 Faces - 12

56 to 60 of 101

NICK DRAKE

I think that so much related to Nick Drake is so idyllic. The happy childhood with kind, loving parents, success at public school, weed-heavy Cambridge in the late 60s, trips to North Africa and Aix-en-Provence, Hampstead Heath. Most of the music retains a superficial peace to it, a sense that it's music you can chill out to.

I love Drake because he's the voice of quiet posh boys who seem like they're having it easy but they're not.

I got that big scrapbook about him a few years ago and the first page I turned to, completely by chance, was the transcription of his dad's diary describing the day they found Nick dead in his childhood bedroom.

NICK CAVE

Aah, the easily confused Cave and Drake, unless you ever listen to them. There might be a point in the next few years where I admit I now like Cave more than I like Bob Dylan. Equally, there may not. 

I think I need to include a sub-face within this entry, if that's allowed. Nick Cave's sideman Warren Ellis, of the Dirty Three, has such a great face, and is also, as an instrumentalist, one of the few people whose ever taken me out of my need to listen to music which has words.

KATARINA JOHNSON-THOMPSON

There really seems to be a very specific type of sportsperson I follow and support, across the years, across sports. Talented, prodigiously so, but regularly criticised and held to have some great mental weakness, when really what holds them back is a combination of a technical glitch and bad luck, and really, in any case, the criticism is usually unjustified in as much they end up achieving a huge amount and performing at a  high level over a long and successful career. Gower's the template. Giggs. Bell. Wilkinson. Murray. Now the likes of Adil Rashid, Eric Lamela, KJT. They're always on her case. She should smile more. Her attitude's wrong. When really, she can only ever be so good at the Shot and the Javelin, she's still young, she's been very unlucky a couple of times, she's putting in excellent performances, she's just competing in a very good era for Heptathlon ... etc anyway, this is my kind of sportperson. And, obviously, the name is magnificent. I will, conceitedly, post my sportsperson's take on We Didn't Start the Fire ... because if life has taught me one thing it is how to make rhyming fun with sportspeople's names

Brian Lara, Sangakkara, McNamee and McNamara,

Mayweather, Pacquiao, Oscar de La Hoya,

Curtley Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Akabusi, Jamie Baulch,

Kahn, Courtouis, Cech, Lloris, Manuel Neuer

Johnson-Thompson, Joyner-Kersee, Thompson, Johnson, Giggs, Van Persie

Graeme Smith, Gilchrist, Shiv Chanderpaul,

Phil Tufnell, Ashley Giles, Beth Tweddle, Simone Biles,

Hurst, Peters, Hunt, Moore, Banks, Alan Ball

John Collins, Collins John, Harry Greb and Billy Conn,

Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns, Roberto Duran

Steve Davis, Tony Meo, Adedayo Adebayo

Contador, Quintana, Porte, Froome, Uran

Isinbayeva, Rod Laver, Elena Dementieva

Wilkinson, Dan Carter, Martin Offiah,

David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Tony Drago, Tony Knowles,

Dele Alli, Rose, Harry Kane, Eric Dier

Andy Farrell, Andy Carroll, Hair, Harper, Darrell, Darryl,

Merlene Ottey, Pirlo, Totti, Misbah Ul-Haq

Little, Horan, Henman, Goran, Norman Whiteside, Kevin Moran,

Henry Cotton, Winterbottom, Hill, Leonard, Back.

MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Laurent Blanc and Basile Boli,

Laura Robson, Heather Watson, John McEnroe,

Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo, Ronaldinho, Raul, Ronaldo,

Richard Hadlee, then more sadly, Cruyff, Ali, Crowe.

Andy Murray, Jamie Murray, Kobe Bryant, Steph Curry,

Carl Lewis, Joe Louis, Richie McCaw

Will Greenwood, Josh Lewsey, one more Akabusi,

George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law.

Lindsey Vonn and Barry John, Maradona and The Don,

Michael Vaughan, Shane Warne, Zinedine Zidane,

Jonah Lomu, Joe Montana, Carl Lewis, Bryan Habana,

Niall Quinn, Cascarino, Kevin Kilbane.

OWEN JONES

Before I went on Twitter, I understood Owen Jones to be a lively, sharp, emotive left-wing writer and commentator. However, when I reached the promised online land, I quickly realised that he was the vessel into which the good, sensible people of Britain threw all their contempt and loathing. From fascists and homophobes to the eminently respectable so-called "centrists", the fact that Jones can sometimes be a bit of a twat and make his arguments too forcibly and occasionally changes his mind makes him far and away the worst person in the world and the reason that everything is so fucked up and the devil himself. Who knew? When I am off twitter, this no longer appears to be the case. He still seems to be a pretty good writer and activist.

KRISTIN SCOTT-THOMAS

I saw Kristin Scott Thomas acting in Three Sisters in 2003 – she hadn’t acted on the London stage for many many years. As soon as she first spoke, the atmosphere in the place changed … From being nominated for a Razzie in 1986 for Worst New Star to astonishing performances in two different countries, across different media. Her performance in I’ve Loved You So Long is simply as good as it gets.