They all knew except me.

I’ve changed the name of the blog again. I don’t mention vacuum cleaners that much, so it seems to be 1. A blessing and 2. More relevant. After all I don’t stand on stage with a Dyson slung over my shoulder.
Went to the music shop to pick up an XLR socket. That’s a socket that I can plug my microphone into.  Rick said “That’s £2.50.”
“What?  They’re only 26p in my catalogue.”
“Impossible. Tell you what, you have this one and fuck off!”
“I must pay you.”
“No need. Fuck off!”
“Thanks Rick.”
“Anytime. By the way I’ll do you a really good deal on an Ovation guitar.”
“How good a deal?”
“A really good deal. I’ll look after you.”
“What if I want to chop in my 6 string electric acoustic?”
“I’ll do you a good deal on that too.”
 
Our new website has music on it. It’s us playing the first few bars of “Stuck in the middle with you.” It’s looped to drive you crazy. You can sing along. There’s a picture of me there with baby. (That’s what we call my mandolin.) Pix of Del and Tony too so you’ll know who I’m talking about.
 
I used to work security at a rock club in Aylesbury. I say security with a laugh, because I was an eight stone weakling at the time. Now I’m a thirteen stone weakling.
The club was the famous “Friars Aylesbury”. One night I was stage left, watching Iggy and the Stooges. Iggy Pop was stripped to the waist leaping about the stage, when this guy came up to me in the darkness.
“Alright?” he said to me, standing at the bottom of the stage steps.
“Yeah great!” I said.
“Good group huh?”
“Yeah Great!”
“Well that’s my cue.” He said, “Love to stop and chat but I’ve got to go on stage.”
He walked up the steps and sat behind a keyboard, the lights went on and it was bleedin David Bowie. Fuck I’d been standing next to David Bowie and all I’d managed to say was “Yeah Great!”
I met quite a few famous artists over the years the ones that stick out in my mind, stick out for the strangest reason. Rick Wakeman and Steve Harley both  in the bar before the doors opened. They were a lot shorter than I expected. I still wonder why I remember them more than any of the others, perhaps it was simply because I was a lot taller than them.
I hada  great arrangement with this girl called Sue. Her father would drive From Stoke Mandeville to Wendover to pick me up and then drive the two of us to Friars. In return for this kindness I got Sue in for free every week as my guest. We’d sit and chat before the doors opened and she’d have great fun waving to her mates stuck outside in the cold and the rain. She’d even buy me drinks during the night and bring them to me where ever I was stationed at the time. Then at the end of the night her father would drive me the six miles home. It was perfect. Sue herself was gorgeous. But being very shy in them days (really) I didn’t dare make a move in case she got upset and I lost my free transport. Years later I was in Aylesbury and met a guy who asked me what ever happened to Sue.  I said I didn’t know.
“What? You were going out with her weren’t you? For years.”
“No. I never went out with Sue.”
“But she was with you all the time.”
“There was never anything going on.”
“That’s not what she was telling everyone else.”
So it appears everyone knew about me and Sue, except me. So this is another testament to that stuff at the top of this blog. I never had a mispent youth. Damn my shyness. Damn it to hell and back. The good news is I have cured myself of that.  
 
We’re doing “Local boy in the photograph” by the Stereophonics. So I’d better pick up the old guitar and practice a bit. Later dudes.