to all mums past and present , especially tonight , jonathan's ,
thanks.

How Does Time Fly?

THOUGHT I'D LET YOU INTO THIS......................



First day at school/ home at lunchtime/knew the difference/
Would be different from then on/
Previously/street party I think/
Julia Jenkins/River Avon/
Constant threat from school dinners/
Calamity of society/ birds nesting/not much difference/
Lust for power over fellow creatures/
Girls/ seem to know that later they will have power over men/
No need for others then/
Dave Smith/Allan McWilliams later to face trial for murder/
Cinemas/junk shops/stately homes/friends on motorbikes/
Burton Dassett fossils/ Junior School/Linda Maloney/Arthur/Council Estate/
Fishing hooks for War picture library/humblest of pie/BIG 68 pages don’t take less !/
Higgledy Piggledy Shop (now my ebay name)/
Dawn Hawkins/Warwick Racecourse/Gog Brook jumping/
Crystal Radio Sets/Journey into Space/Wakey Wakey/
The Goons/Down your Way/
Ukele/guitar/snare drum/
Then Grandad/Burma/Ghurka Knife/Hand cut off/Dogs/Died/
To Carmen/South Pacific/West Side Story/Krays/Christine Keeler/ Profumo/Kennedy/Rock n roll/Dad/Little Richard/Bill Haley/Elvis/

And always constant background strife/fighting/occasional police.

But now there was music/2 years snare drum upside down/
Holidays/Cornwall/Devon/more motorbikes and American Wool /
Still wearing 45 years later/
Beat groups/Tony and the Talons/Their drummer is only twelve first headline/
Thrilled at the fame of it/

Minton’s farm/Castle woods/Bert Lee/stench of dead animals in the forest/
Suddenly Warwick School/almost Charles Dickens/stole my Saturdays/
Sport/School Doctors/prefects and worst of all – boarders/rich but thick/
Beatles/Adam Faith/Buddy Rich and adolescence/long hair/expulsion/
Notoriety/yet more fame/
El Ciento /Bally Ho/all those sixpences/
Soul Music/ Dave March (poor old Trevor)/
Friends at school?/
Oh God first day there’s John Wiltshire./
Simon Stable/John Powell/Chris Plant/Chris Baker (Around the world in 80 days)/
Fred Archer/Head Boy/So old/He was 18/a man/
Roger Hosen/England Full back/
Taught me Rugby the bastard./
Best subjects/English/Art/Biology/Rugby/

Still taking in more and more/cogniscently??/
Stately homes/history/nature/antiques/
Most of all music/
Met Beatles with Chris Plant/autographs but significantly later not John’s/
Thrilled out of all concentration at school/
Perfected fake autographs!/

Home life getting more troubled/we always came first/always lack of money/

1962/first full drumkit assorted makes/Tony Ivans/loved the smell of the shells/
Growing Beatles cut/Rob hanging out of school and smoking/
Unattainable for me/moving into another posher world/school/
Taking the piss out of me at home/moving more and more with his friends/
Pretty separate for a couple of years/
Stoned him in Castle Woods/terrible guilt for years/
Liz Wheatley/Dawn Hawkins/

Not til many years later understood other problems between parents/
Not til my own problems/

Switzerland at 15/
Basel/the Doctor/The Images/Gary New Nadir later Uriah Heep/
Rats in the rooms/Mum freaked/
Angelique/ made my balls hurt/boyfriend waiting with knife at hotel/
Boats/mini skirts/Loni/Kinky/Atlantis/Barry Compton/
Freddie Wipsli/Mr Crosby/ Both suicided /Freddie with roses/
Saucepans of food when we left/wonderful abroad/
Suddenly the world is big and exciting/
New Nadir/Chicago Blues/ joined the Beach Boys later/Loni (first real love later to live up the road in Enfield)

Back home to more notoriety/M.U./went to Mansfield to find Crosby/
He called the police/cursed him/outed his demons
1965 First Demo at Tetlows studio Birmingham/ (to be released this year 2004 as Bonus tracks for re released first album Wasa Wasa)/
Midnight City/John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers/Wynder K Frogg/
Bluesbreakers stayed at Warwick/Mum’s House/
Pete Green/John McVie/Ansley Dunbar stayed in the House/
John in the Commer with his girlfriend/bunk over the band seats/
40 years later in German Mountains/still playing same old/
Greeny on my bedroom floor in a bag/signed the pelmet in red wax/
Next to Liz and Dawn/
That was life on the road confirmed/just when and how/
Would have to be in London but not just yet/
Hitched down to Picadilly Circus with Charlie Parker/I mean Butler of course!
Now building a Barrier Reef boat in Darwin Northern Territory Australia/
No idea of drugs at Boots/sitting on Chemist step/
West End Central Police station/very busy there/
Mum and Mick Baldwin came to pick us up/
It had been worth it /
Hitchhiked to Cornwall and Devon/Digger Davis/(only this year to die and be reborn again!)
New friends from Fox and Vivien and Warwick Uni scene/
Beats/Poets/Singers/drugs/all things that were bad!/
Stones now massive/
Dave Philips/Gordon Massey/Dave Whelan/Allan Heath/Allan Kitchen/
All friends and fans/Arthur joined/
Rob writing original stuff now/Love in the Rain/Dawn Crept Away for Wasa Wasa/
Heard Beefheart/Doors/ Hendix/Floyd/Nice live in Coventry/
Eire Apparent with Pete Tolsen later to play on Parlez-vous English?
Pete Jenner and Pete Drummond on that tour later to become good friends/
Buddy Rich live at Chesford Grange/Missed the bus!/
Many years later at Ronnie Scotts saw him one handed press rolling and smoking/
Sportsmans and Cheylesmore two pubs we played regularly/
Moved up a gear/playing to strangers who were to become friends and crew/
Coventry biker-hippies/lotsa hash and alcohol/
Chris and Archie Smith/Tony/Snorky/Mick/Mel/Bill Becket/Brian Blattner (who the short straw fell to me to sack in Abbey Road No 2 studio some years later, I’ll never forget his threats as he walked up the long staircase from the studio floor !!)
They came to every gig and put the word out/
Full gigs/ dressed as wild as possible/
Gina/first real girlfriend/In Love/Warwick Tavern/Piers/Martin Constable/Dave Philips/Pete Beasely/Jim Goult/Digger/
Claud Seneveratni and his poor brother Roger/Warwick Asians/some of the first/
Janet/Victor/smoking in the Park/snogging at the Coventry Bus Stop/
Norman giving me a Healey 3000/me refusing it/
Finding the guy off the scooter in the ditch/
Kaftans,hair and beads on Leamington Parade/Boys or girls?/

more to come……………….

When my Mum was getting older and people would visit with kids, she would always , like they do, ask how old the kids were. When answered she would go into a spasm of calculation to work out how old she would be when they had become adults . At one stage she reached the age of 115 which she seriously believed she had a chance of reaching.

It’s different with me although I still seem to hold respect for the same gene.

My daughter , Sally, and two grandchildren, Lewis 5 and Ruby 1, came to stay this week and I fell into the same kind of muses except,
I know I won’t be there when Ruby, as a 70 year old can converse by touching wrist mechanisms with a stranger and can whizz along in driverless cars on multi level highways where no vehicle is allowed to be non environmental friendly.
I wish and don’t wish to be there. I just wish her every possible luck , chance and love, and hope that some, if not all answers will have been found by then.

Mr.Guantanamo

This is the new CO of Guantanamo Bay detention centre.Apparently his first task was to download the entire Geneva Convention and get genned up.These instructions came directly from the White as white house.

OVER MY SHOULDER

You may remember her he said.
I was completely blank : yet?
White and emaciated, but beautiful.
I thought I had a brief recollection but it was fleeting.
Surely there had to be some meaning to this.
I thought I had drifted upward somewhat ,
but later they told me I had nearly been lost (died).

These days I hardly think of her.
They gradually trained me not to,
but there are moments when I think she passes over me,
slyly sniggering behind a swan’s hand,
cooing gently like a dove and beckoning me to unthinkable pleasures.

But now as I sit in the dark looking into my garden
the sky is surprisingly full of fireworks, celebrating Divali (sic) or the end of Ramadan or some other local festival.
But suddenly it seems like the sound of small arms warfare and I am transported to a terrifying half world..
How do you do the school run when there are bastards that will shoot you and both your kids as you walk to school? Does the baker still deliver? How does it actually work at the PTA meeting even if your school’s still standing after the imperialist bombers have scooped the earth all around?

Quickly come back in mental retreat. This is home and it’s just fireworks.

TAKE YER VEILS OFF AND DON’T LIVE IN GHETTOS!

Maybe we should ban UK ghettos in Spain. God what a relief that would be.
Or fish and chip shops in Cyprus. Heaven forbid.
At the same time Jack and Dave express their negative/paranoid/fascist opinions about the rights of all of us to dress and be how we feel, a makeshift mosque in Windsor has been attacked by white youths and a small army of defending Asians have been bussed down from Reading to do their thing. Kristalnacht here we come. The Queen may not be spending her usual weekend at the castle so a senior source divulged.
Come on!
My son’s grammar homework sheet contains spelling mistakes.
What should I do ?
Move to the West Indies where especial attention to grammar is paramount? Or go to Goa where I could make a fortune if I continued to fail to see.
Or maybe I should talk to his teacher. Maybe we should all talk to our teachers to relearn what it all is we’ve all forgotten somehow.

‘ What would you be like if you had been born?
would you be happy or sad ?
short or tall would you care at all ?
how would you know I was your Dad?

That’d why I talk to the wall ,
making more sense than it all ,
some memories what you want them to be -
some never happened at all ’

I was asked once by two great beautiful friends if I would help them out as they weren’t having any luck. I couldn’t , after much soul searching and private stuff, comply , and the above words are for them both, I still love them dearly.

Ah ha!
Where are you Lawrence. God I miss people here in Barnet. Stop me shiver.
I’ll work out how to leave you some music here……………….if you’re interested. Listening to the project while I write. Thought again today to phone Heather for Ian’s words. ‘So wilful and warm’
Great words come from beyond. They still will, so listen out!

ME AND HIM