Luckily it seems like our boy is growing into more a grunger than a metaller. Many a pre-dawn session has been spent in front of VEVO watching “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, or as Arthur calls it, “Boom Boom Tssschh” (he’s started thumping along to Dave Grohl’s beats). When he heard Soundgarden’s ‘Rusty Cage’ for the first time, he started shouting, “Gonna eat my rusty cake” and then ran into the kitchen and raided the food cupboard. Shynola’s animation for QOTSA’s ‘Go With The Flow’ really caught his eye because it reminded him of Mater, the goofy tow truck from Cars. Being the responsible parent that I am, I always turn the clip off before Josh Homme gets lucky with the stripper. I’m not ready for that chat yet, possibly never will be.
Always keen to start the day as he means to go on, Arthur woke us up on the weekend by stage diving onto our bed after turning the Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right” up to 11 on the radio. He is also a huge fan of Billy Corgan’s ice cream van in the ‘Today’ music video and has repeatedly tried to persuade me to invest in one just like it. When he’s not dreaming about bubblegum ice pops, he likes singing along to Coati Mundi’s ‘Prisoner of My Principles’ and Tenpole Tudor’s rambunctious ‘Swords of a 1000 Men’ (which he discovered via the Aardman film The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!). And after a hard day rocking, he likes nothing more than to chill out to Moody Blues’ ‘Dear Diary’ because the spoken word bit at the end makes him laugh his little head off. Come to think of it, Arthur’s laugh is my favourite sound in the world.