Spring, Sprung
I don’t think I’ve ever been so pleased to see the crocuses appear in the back garden. The snow blanket was pulled away, leaving underneath the first signs of spring. I’m no f-ing hippy, but C’MON.
Back in the Saddle
It’s been ten days since my last bicycle ride. All that we are allowed to do during these dark days is walk, run or ride a bike. But the bloody Beast from the East 2 saw off two of those. The Great Thaw finally appeared overnight. It pissed it down in the Estuary Wilds. See ya, snow.
The lanes are still heaving with puddles the size of swimming pools. There’s no way I’m taking my roadie or tourer out in that. And so out came the MTB instead. It was a brief Bobby George route out to Ardleigh and back. No sign of the Great Man at Bobby George Towers.
A couple of road closures were a right bugger. One meant a reverse ferret detour, back along the delightfully named Turnip Lodge Lane, and then straight on to a dual carriageway. Cheers.
But it was good to be back on the bike. I only spent about half an hour back at base cleaning it up again. Chapeau!
The Postman Delivers:
I’ve been watching far too many TOTP repeats during #lockdown 3. The BT box is set to record the whole ‘season’ - which in reality means at least one half hour bust every Thursday on BBC4. It’s not quite the same shared viewing experience when first broadcast. The memory of some classic performances has also been diluted with some at best half decent pouting efforts in front of the camera.
My TOTP catch up is currently in the spring of 1988. Which means The Christians feature heavily. It was around this time that they replaced The Smiths, Madness and The Jam as a brilliant British pop band that made an appearance from Elstree every week.
The debut album sold shitloads back in the day. Look - there it is filed away in-between Chas and Dave and The Clash in my collection. Hey! How about buying the cassette? Job’s a good ‘un. The thing about artists that sold shitloads back in the day means that the supply is still out there for bargain bucket cassettes. The Christians sit alongside Phil Collins and Chris Rea. £1.99; thank you very much, eBay feedback left, etc.
They had a run of classic singles: Forgotten Town, When the Finger Points, Born Again, Ideal World. Not exactly indie, but neither pure pop either. They were a welcome bridge from my crossover from one to another back in ’88.
Meanwhile, back in TOTP Catch Up News and I’m rapidly accelerating into the 1989. Half hour shows are binged in ten minutes flat. An uncompromising finger on the fast forward button sees to that. A game of Good or SHIT is also played during the Top 40 countdown. The rather crude rules involve shouting out Good or SHIT after each entry. There is no middle ground. 1988 is increasingly SHIT. Except for The Christians.
Terry’s Hair is Shining Like a Lighthouse
I’m way behind with my podcast catch up listening. Which explains why the Terry Wilson interview as part of Nottingham Forest Weekly isn’t even available to download right now. No worries - my iPhone is stuffed with 100+ Forest, political and Weller based podcasts. Never a dull moment during #lockdown 3.
Terry Wilson is unfortunate. That’s the best way to describe his brief but eventful Forest career in the late 80’s. But woh - the young man managed to achieve so much in such a short space of time. Four Wembley finals, more than 150 first team appearances for the Reds in the top division - and then it was all over with a run of ‘unfortunate’ injuries before he reached his 25th birthday.
The podcast teases it all out: signing for Forest as a 14 year-old schoolboy, the transition of Clough’s second great Forest team and yep, the lighthouse hairstyle story that meant that Terry almost missed a major Wembley Cup Final. I particularly liked the dressing room banter of ‘Forest will win the Premier League’ after that opening day home win against Liverpool back in 1992. Too good to go down, etc.
Terry now lives in the States. He seems happy, as well as still having a full head of hair. Better to have lived the dream during a whirlwind period, than drag it out over a decade with the current water treading taking place at Trentside?