Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

Garage pioneer, geezer extraordinaire, chav icon, Mercury prize winner, street poet, Buddhist - Mike Skinner has had many labels in past the decade. Now, with just one more Streets album to go before he rips up the blueprint and starts all over again, Skinner's becoming wiser, more philosophical and a lot less pugnacious, he tells Tony Clayton-Lea

MIKE SKINNER used to be a pop star, the kind who made guest appearances at branches of Foot Locker and so was able to avail of free trainers on a daily basis. The kind who was once trumpeted as being "the voice of the suburbs" but now embraces a form of a la carte Buddhism.