Mark Leckey is considering one of the big turning points in his life. A self-confessed “scally” and teenage troublemaker around Liverpool’s Wirral, he had the opportunity to join his mates on a lads’ holiday to Benidorm. Instead, he went Interrailing, alone, to see the Sistine Chapel in Rome. “I was really obsessed with Italy,” says the now London-based artist. “That’s when I first really got into Giotto and Piero Della Francesca and those true pre-Raphaelite sort of artists.” Leckey likes to get obsessive about things, and his Italian period was no different. “To the extent I would get my mum to buy me Findus pizzas and cannellonis and that would be the only thing I would eat!”
The trip was a disaster. The Sistine Chapel was crowded and annoying, travelling solo was a chore and the local cuisine was no match for the Findus factory. “I tried lasagne and found it repulsive,” he laughs. “I was 19 and just totally unprepared for a European tour.” His mates, on the other hand, had a great time in Benidorm.
