Questions With... Chris Hart

northernsongevent
May 9, 2019
3 min read

Chris Hart is the Senior Lecturer In Advertising at the University Of Chester, as well as the blog and photography team's supervisor. Here, he answers our questions, and we get to know him a little bit better...

"Favourite artist?"

C: "Grayson Perry is one of my favourite artists - [he’s] utterly outlandish, challenges everything, [and] is a nice kind human."

"Favourite musical artists?"

C: "Count Basie, Michael Bublé, Pink Floyd for my forthcoming book."

"Favourite TV shows?"

C: "Anything from the 60’s and 70’s - The Avengers, Space 1999, M*A*S*H, Randall And

Hopkirk (Deceased), etc. Plus Star Trek: Discovery, Peaky Blinders, Altered Carbon, and Japanese anime."

"Favourite films?"

C: "Lots - addict collector, no hope or cure. ‘I Know Where I’m Going’, ‘Frozen’..."

"Worst film ever?"

C: "Worst film ever - so many. Over The Hedge - pass the petrol, I have some matches!"

"Funniest comic?"

C: "Only one - Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy - [I] have every short they ever produced."

"What is your favourite curry?"

C: "All - even veggie ones!"

"Do you remember the first time you heard Dark Side of the Moon?"

C: "1974, December 26th at my mates house, drinking his Dad’s homemade beer - [it] tasted like piss but what the heck."

"When was the last time you were drunk?"

C: "Never been drunk, must put this on my bucket list along with bungee jumping."

"What research are you working on at the moment?"

C: "A book about Pink Floyd with Simon Morrison, a book on research with myself... a book on the film Mrs Miniver and how some people are bad people, e.g. Nazis."

"Best thing anyone has said to you?"

C: "Fuck what others think. Do your own thing (Dave Jones, lecturer of history when I

decided to give this thing eduction a try aged 22 - having left the torture of compulsory education aged 15)."

"Where do you stand on Brexit?"

C: "If we had voted to stay in the EU by 1% majority then would we be asking this question? We have placed democracy close to the edge of the abyss - having worked with several EU Commissioners 2004-2006 on a trans-EU research project as research director I got an insider view of the waste, duplication (two parliament buildings in two different cities), greed and silly people (mainly men) who were mostly there to enjoy the gravy train… So make of this what you want."

"What hobbies do you have?"

C: "Lots - [I’m a] serial collector of anything interesting. For example, motoring magazines, [starting] from 1905 - [I] currently have approximately 10,000 plus. Cars - oldest in my collection is my 1929 Riley 9 MKV - [I’ve got] 19 in [my] collection but not all are in one piece!

My current passion is my Rover 75 that I am restoring. I design and build ‘she sheds’ from rich women in Cheshire. Plus I have every Olympus camera ever made, including pre-production models."

"What is the most expensive object you have bought?"

C: "Don’t know. But I have bought things which have turned out to be valuable beyond my expectations. For example, my Range Rover LSE 4.2 was owned by Princess Margaret - when I found out I advertised this on a Land Rover website and was made a ridiculous offer by someone with more money than brains, and sold it to him (he was French). [I] recent[ly] bought a pre-production music CD by Billy Joel [which was] used by Sony to demo their new CD players in 1980, two years before official release of the CD format and player."

"What will happen to your collection after you die?"

C: "My wife likes the idea that I have several outbuildings in which I can keep my collections. I have offered my children bits over the years but they seem to find this funny. So, when I die I will have all my stuff buried with me."

To learn more about Chris Hart, and his role at the University of Chester, click here.

[AT and MU]