What is your first outdoor memory?

Not my first memory but a very significant one. It's nearly 40 years since I was knocked off my bike at the T junction turning from Brawby to Great Barugh. I remember being lifted into the ambulance and the journey to Malton hospital. I was lucky to survive with just a broken leg and arm and fractured skull. I feel very sorry for the people in the car because I just rode straight out in front of them. I was only nine but it was still
my fault. However, the junction in question is still widely regarded as one of the most dangerous in Ryedale and local people run the gauntlet of turning right everyday, not knowing who or what is about to come hurtling round the bend towards them.



What's your idea of a perfect weekend/day out in Yorkshire?

I've taken up cycling again in recent years and we now cycle as a family. My youngest daughter, Nell, is six so a gentle ride to Nunnington through Salton makes a lovely Sunday afternoon outing. We would probably "take tea" at Nunnington Hall and maybe look at their latest exhibition. I also like to visit Leeds City Art Gallery a few times a year. I've been going there since I was 15 when I used to travel from Malton on the bus. There's a very good collection of sculpture on display at the moment and I always find enough "real art" to charge my batteries.



Do you have a favourite walk, or view?

We overlook what's on our own doorstep and I have my brother-in-law to thank for showing me this delightful walk. Again a Nunnington trip but this time a circular route from the top of Caukleys Bank along the ridge to West Ness and back beside the River Rye to Nunnington. It's probably about five miles in total with sweeping views over Hovingham towards Malton with Pickering. I often mention this to visitors to The Shed. It's a lovely way to spend a few hours before a gig. It's the chance to work up a good appetite for supper in Hovingham before an evening of top jazz or folk music or comedy.



Which Yorkshire sportsman/woman (past or present) would you like to take for lunch?

Rather than an individual sportsman or woman I think I'd opt for my three nephews. They are all keen sportsmen and are now old enough to drive me home if I drink too much. I would also enjoy the laughter of Stuart Hall. I'm not sure if he's a Yorkshireman but his commentaries on It's A Knockout were wonderful.



Which Yorkshire stage or screen star (past or present) would you like to take for lunch?

Mrs Boyes. She's a fantastic, natural performer (bingo caller) and very funny. She can also be very scary. If they invited her on I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, all the other contestants would run away! I realise that most readers will ask Mrs who?



What do you think gives Yorkshire its unique identity?

You're asking the man who created the Yorkshire Pudding Boat Race! Seriously though, few people know that in the same way that Cornish pasties were originally made as a convenient way to carry both the savoury food and the sweet in one crust, so the Yorkshire Pudding was originally baked to be used as an edible "carrying crust" or pouch. The Yorkshire pudding would be folded over like a folded flat cap to carry cold roast beef and vegetables to the field. In fact, once dried and hardened, they offer much the same protection as caps and were sometimes worn upside down on the head on remote hill farms in Yorkshire with the front pulled out like a peak. Some people believe that flat caps actually started life this way.



Do you follow sport in the county?

I watch Malton Town play football roughly once a year.



What about Yorkshire's cultural life?

Cultural afterlife more like! Yorkshire is heaven on earth for the arts. We're well supported by the Arts Council and most local authorities now recognise the importance of culture in enriching our lives. Yorkshire has internationally renowned opera and dance companies, jazz venues, jazz festivals, folk clubs, world class theatres, stately home concerts, brass bands, church choirs, orchestras, public gardens and Morris dancers. Yorkshire is throbbing with culture. We also have extra-special arts organisations working quietly with, and for, children. North Yorkshire Music Therapy Centre achieves amazing results working with children with autism and adults with severe mental health problems. The Kirkham Henry School of Performing Arts in Malton has run on a shoestring for 20 years doing wonderful work teaching young children the joy of music and dance. Both organisations need our support.



If you had to name your Yorkshire hidden gem, what would it be?

I deal mostly with music and part of my job is to tempt people to try something new. I always make the comparison with restaurants and food. Do we only go to one restaurant? Do we always eat the same thing on the menu or do we sometimes try something different? I was chatting to a fellow music promoter recently who thinks that our biggest competitor is not other music venues or festivals but shopping! Monks Cross or Meadowhall, people shop till they drop. Add to that the magnetic pull of the TV and we're rowing like spawning salmon against a tidal wave of consumerism. But we keep going like gigs in a storm and we rescue a good many souls. We should all get out more!



Do you have a favourite restaurant or pub?

I had my "birthday party" at the Penny Bank Café in Kirkbymoorside. I ate venison, Jenny had fish and Nell ate wild boar sausages with mash. It's one of the least ostentatious places to eat in Ryedale and the food is superb. I don't go to the pub very often but I like to drink the real ale in Cropton if my friend Nic is driving.



Do you have a favourite food shop?

I have several but I especially like the Organic Farm Shop in Pickering. Mike and Pam Sellars were trailblazers where organic food is concerned and Mike's email newsletters are mini-masterpieces of surrealism. I don't think he intends to be so funny but I love reading them. They also offer a snapshot of life on the farm as the weather and the seasons change.



How do you think Yorkshire has changed in the time you've known it?

My new found love of cycling has been the gateway to a new and somewhat slower world. I notice more from the saddle of my bike in an hour than I'd notice in a month in a car. I know we rely on vehicles, especially in the countryside, but I hope that rising fuel costs will tempt more people on to two wheels – if only now and again. England is a Third World country where cycling is concerned and we need the weight of public opinion to force our district councils to provide proper, safe cycling facilities for everyone's benefit but especially for our children.



Name your favourite Yorkshire book/author/artist/CD/performer.

I don't read much but I recently discovered Derwent May's Nature Watch column in The Times. It fuels my new-found interest in wild birds. Anyone who loves craftsmanship and words should read Pete Morgan's latest collection of poems August Light. Pete is one of our county's (and country's) greatest poets. Listen to Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson sing and Martin Simpson play guitar. Watch Ian McMillan perform and the world will be a different place.