Rockabilly kid plus Honey-bunny: Susan De Muth in bed with Oliver

Oliver, 12, is the singer and double bass player in Animal Jack Senior, a rockabilly band. The other members are his father, Andy Brindley, and sister, Joelle, 13, though not his mother, Fernanda. The family live in Pembrokeshire.

We spend our school holidays busking round Europe, which is really brilliant. We all sleep in our camper van and when we wake up we decide where to go next. Before setting off, I get so excited I can hardly sleep. The first time we went we were worried we'd fall out, all of us sleeping in such a tiny space, but we didn't. We get on really well and now we're more like friends than parents and children. Even when we're at home we spend our evenings together watching television and having band practices until it's time for bed.

My bedroom is not a private place because the computer is in there and the others are always playing on it. I do my homework there, though, and listen to my hi-fi, which I bought with my busking money. I like some mod5ern music but mostly prefer old stuff like Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. Quite often, when the light is off and I'm meant to be going to sleep, I suddenly get an idea for a song and jump out of bed to someone.

Being in the band is a brilliant hobby. I really love my bass - she's called Honey-bunny and lives by my bed. I have to stand on a box to play her because she's so tall. She's like a great big friend to me and I can feel her come alive when I start to play.

Some people say when I get a bit bigger I won't be cute any more and the band will finish, but I don't agree. I'm going to get better as I get older. The dream I have most often is that I'm grown up and in a band - sometimes I'm just the backing singer, but I'd rather be the front man.

Dreams are like watching television. I generally have very nice ones about teddy bears and clouds, but I have one nightmare: this nice little old granny on a bicycle suddenly turns nasty and starts chasing me. I think this is about the occasional person in the crowd saying nasty things when we're busking. I don't really care about that. Usually even the policemen dance when we play.

Night is my favourite time and I like staying up as late as possible. That's the best thing about being on tour. We don't have watches and we sleep and wake when we feel like it. When we're all in bed in the camper van we tell stories to each other sometimes until the sun comes up. Mine and Joelle's are the best. Andy always tells the same terrible jokes.

The best night of my life so far was when we played at the 100 Club in London earlier this year - that really was a dream come true. Apart from that, going to Paris and crossing the bridge - beep] beep] - and throwing money into the water for good luck - and seeing the Eiffel Tower all lit up.

I had my most embarrassing moment at night, too. We were sitting round the campfire eating snails and I decided to lie on the groundsheet and look up at the stars. I flopped down and something went splat. It was our desert, a great big custard pie. Everyone laughed and said it was squashed bum pie. When I'd stopped going red we ate it.

I never want to go to bed at night but in the morning I don't like getting up. Andy solved this problem by getting a new calendar with a joke for every day; when we're all at the breakfast table we turn the new page together. Wondering what the joke's going to be gets me out of bed.

Then we tell each other our dreams and everyone tries to work out what they mean. Andy always says something daft like: 'I dreamt I met David Bowie and he was begging me to let him produce our next record' and we all say 'Liar' . . . but we hope he means it.

(Photograph omitted)