MICK HOUGHTON, WHOSE new book on folk icon Sandy Denny has just been published, began writing about music during the seventies, for such publications as Circus, Zigzag, Let It Rock, Sounds and Time Out. He then stumbled into a job as a PR at Warner Bros in 1979. Within a year he had set up the independent Brassneck Publicity, where he’s looked after an extraordinary array of people ever since. Over the years he’s been closely associated with Echo and the Bunnymen, Julian Cope, The Undertones, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Sonic Youth, The KLF, Spiritualized, Bert Jansch and Richard Thompson. He began writing again in 2001, first for Mojo and later for Uncut. As one of the Grammy-nominated compilers/producers of the boxed set Forever Changing: The Golden Age of Elektra, 1963-1973, he went on to write Becoming Elektra: The True Story of Jac Holzman’s Visionary Record Label, published in 2010.

1) Are you happy?

I’m a paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.  J.D. Salinger said that or something similar and he’s not far wrong.

2) What are you reading at the moment?

 I’m working my way through Christopher Fowler’s wonderful Bryant & May series about the Peculiar Crimes Unit.

3) What was your worst job? 

Working in a bakery making doughnuts; you’ll never know what lies beneath the coating of sugar. I’ve never eaten one since.

4) How many hours do you work each day?

 Aside from making doughnuts I’ve carefully avoided ever having had a proper job, so none.

5) Town mouse or country mouse? 

Definitely a city dweller.

6) Does love bring happiness or misery? 

This time around… happiness at last.

7) Mp3 or vinyl, real or e book? 

Cheap second hand vinyl, not overpriced 180 gram rip-offs, and proper page turners.

8) What are your three greatest pleasures?

 My wife, our four cats, and having paid off the mortgage.

9) Do you believe in the nap? 

Sorry, I must have dozed off for a minute.

10) What advice do you have for young people?

I used to have comp slips with a line stolen from a William Boyd novel that declared:  “It’s a full time job getting your own back on the world.”  I’ve mellowed with age and if I had any printed now they’d say: “Be careful what you wish for.”

Mick’s latest book, a biography of folk rock icon Sandy Denny, was published last week by Faber. It is available to buy through the Idler bookshop by following the link to the right (or below on phones). The photograph above shows Sandy Denny singing live.