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I can neatly divide up some aspects of my childhood: "before Hong Kong" is up to the age of eight; "in Hong Kong" is eight to twelve; and "after Hong Kong" is, well, you can work it out.

Musically, what I remember listening to before we went to Hong Kong are the tapes my day played in the car. These were mostly 'Best Of' collections, and I particularly remember the Beach Boys ('20 Golden Greats'!), and Simon and Garfunkel.

Once we were in Hong Kong, I started my own musical collection, buying bootleg cassettes from places like the Poor Man's Nightclub, which was a market that was open in the evenings. Amongst my purchases, I also had a couple of 'Best Of' tapes, although mine were Abba and The Beatles (my dad was more of a Stones fan). I also had a rather precocious passion for Johnny Cash, which has never quite gone away.

When I had the house to myself, I would play my tapes on the stereo in the living room and pretend I was performing. Because I couldn't actually play anything, when I tired of miming the guitar or piano, I would play a made up instrument that consisted of a grid of multi-coloured square buttons, each one triggering a different sound or sequence.

Now, I don't believe that anyone can see the future, so I'm not claiming that I was displaying any precognitive abilities here. But someone else did have the same idea and also did the difficult part of any invention, which was designing it and building it :-)

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Reading: 'Mayflies' Andrew O'Hagan