Thursday, February 08, 2007

Snow at Last!



So, it’s been three months nearly since I felt like writing anything here. Many things have happened in my life as they will have in yours but I’m sure there’s been a breakthrough! Christmas is always a time when old friends contact and wish you well and a time when I’m always guilty for not doing at least as much as them in trying to stay in touch. The truth is that I’ve been in prison.



Well , not your normal Wandsworth or Scrubs type prison but a prison all of my own making... You see it all started way back when I was in another world of 50s ,West Midlands, fire brigade stuff.
Anyway the best bits were great but the thing about really enjoying yourself when you’re young is to not know that the future only holds comedown, and owning up to the fact that you are ageing and you’re kids are having kids or going to China or being gay or going to jail. The real fun is all over and all that’s left is a steadily decaying process of trying to stay fabulous whilst trying to not forget Friday night is basketball night and the bottom gate will be closed . Only some of those reading this will know what I mean. Mind you I only know a little bit of some of the parts of the thoughts of most of the people with whom I collide socially, sexually, politically and psychotically.

The prison I’m talking about is one most of us know. One of not saying what you really want to say. One of not wanting to hurt but of wanting to say what you really feel. Can also be wanting to kill someone but knowing that can’t be! No one has that right ever, ever.

Much bad news of late but light from the new EBB tour.(see www.edgarbroughtonband.com ) Those times on stage are some of the purest moments, transporting and releasing us from the rest of our lives. Looking forward to it immensely.

Saw Nigel Dowdney in the Guardian at the weekend. Nige used to roadie for us and now runs two small supermarkets in Norfolk as well as being a mainstay in the now seemingly hopeless fight against the encroachment Tesco has made on all of our lives.
We are a nation of shopkeepers!!!!!!!!!!!! His interview was amusing. One of the more interesting of Norfolk shopkeepers for sure, having had tea with the Queen quite recently. Tea from Fortnum and Mason’s I wonder or did Nige offer her some of his finest on special offer?!

Great to see you Ray at the 100 club looking really well.

Today as the snow floats down on this land ,enjoy the muffling of sound by this virgin insulation. Waking up this morning there was not a sound, not a plane or train or car, no echo across the valley, no birdsong, no noise from the factory, no eerie conversation echoing off the walls, just white, damp silence. Quite beautiful.

Tomorrow the family go to Norway so I expect to see much more snow this weekend.
Mind you, those guys know how to live with it. I doubt this much snow would even be noticeable there in terms of diminished activity. Could be famous last words!!

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Steve,
I hope your prison is at least warm today (I thought all the prisons were full? perhaps your parole will co-incide with the EBB tour).Freedom.
Your thoughts strike a very loud chord. The 'comedown' and the 'owning up' is a tortuous process I guess. Not quite here and not quite there. Perfect friends and family become perfect strangers overnight. Walking on eggshells is a delicate business and liable to end in an omelette.
Did you ever feel that you were just an instrument for the use of others? I have been trying to reclaim myself because this way it is better for everybody. I want to say 'there is more to me than the shape I walk around in'. Let me be.
I have found my core again, built around around the things that I enjoy and those that move me - Morricone, Rory Gallagher, Wilko, Anoushka and mostly, of course, EBB. My cooking, my books, a little drop.
The dawn is still dark but a day like today. Well?
I hope your China crisis resolves and whatever else troubles you.
The tour will be great.
Peace,
Paul in the Dales

8:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So good to see you back. Fabulous. some of what you say is a little enigmatic though fascinating, do tell us more. Best wishes for the tour and hey - believe in your own powers.

Love
Gerry

1:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My own personal prison was trying to be different & original.
Then I heard a line on a Viv Stanshall album (Men opening umbrellas ahead) in which he said "Why can't I be different & original like everybody else". & I thought " at last I am free"!

ps. lucky you, we don't get snow in Bournemouth!

Tony H.

9:51 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The freedom to express ones own thoughts without fear of rejection and imagined offence is a hard won mental freedom that will either isolate oneself or remove all inhibitions and eventually lead to an inner peace and knowledge that an individual's perception is of infinite value and is not to be mocked.
Release from the bonds of this fear is within reach. Speak with truth of your experiences and the effect of these on your life. Keep within your counsel the effect on others but make ammends where harm is perceived.It is your life as an individual to be lived to your code to the detriment of nobody.
Keep on with the good work and carry the message as you see it. Change The World as you see possible. More than this, live in peace with yourself and show peace to others.

9:24 PM  
Blogger Steve Broughton said...

Thanks for all those thoughts

1:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Steve,l hear you and understand,now is the time to do what you want to do,!!!! maybe selfish but true,do not try to change the world only the world around you.

10:10 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home