XXL creator Mark Ames celebrates his 50th birthday with a big, bold beary bang at Pulse this weekend. To mark the occasion (pun not intended, but there you go…) his partner James McNeill sent us a few fuzzy facts that you may not know about the promoter of the UK’s biggest bear brand…
1. When Mark was aged around six or seven he went to Butlins on the Isle of White with his family where his mum and her friends dressed him up as Shirley Bassey for the fancy dress competition – with full regalia. Having no idea what they had done and thinking he was dressed as David Bowie, when he won and went to collect his prize some kid dressed as the Lone Ranger called him a poof… so Mark punched him and the kid fell in the main pool and had to be saved. This made headline news in the local paper! So you could say Mark was fighting for the cause way back then.
2. He’s an avid scuba diver with over 2,500 dives. One of his thrills is diving with sharks – great whites being his favourites – and has dived all over the world.
3. He’s a naturalist and loves gardening, with a great knowledge of natural British plants, and flora and fauna from around the world.
4. He’s a bee-keeper and produces his own honey. [Winnie the Pooh would be envious…]
5. Mark is an active environmentalist – supporting and raising money and awareness for causes from fracking to saving the wolves in North America, to protecting polar bears and grizzly bears.
6. Mark has worked at both Number 10 and the Whitehouse when in politics, but has signed the Secrets Act 1989 (c.6) so can’t comment on hotel activities at conference time…
Or saunas either.
7. Mark was in a punk band at school and used to buy his outfits from Vivienne Westwood’s shop on the Kings Road and bought his iconic Westwood bondage pants and the t-shirt with the two cowboys with their dicks out from Marilyn in the shop. He was suspended from school for wearing it!
8. He has 18 half brothers and sisters as his dad was quite the lad – and a couple of them have been seen at XXL!
9. Mark deliberately lead Michael Heseltine into the ladies’ toilets at a party conference only to have the press waiting for him to exit.
10. He has a political degree from Cambridge – despite being dyslexic and coming from one of London’s most notoriously bad schools. However, one teacher was right and told him he wouldn’t amount to much more than working behind a bar!
• Mark Ames celebrates his 50th birthday at XXL at Pulse (1 Invicta Plaza, Southwark, SE1 9UF) on Saturday 14th March, 10pm-7am.