The Ned Wood Archive

We could hear an angels choir
I swear, we couldn′t get no higher

Cosmic Rough Riders, 1999

Sam

Sam used to call it the old man’s tent. Thing is, he’s an old man now. And he has to admit, he’s seen some really good gigs in that tent recently. Steve Earle. Richard Thompson. Roy Harper. All memorable.

Now he’s there with Karen and Fiona watching the Yardbirds. There’s only the drummer left. Karen had told them that at lunchtime. She’d seen them not so long ago in Manchester. That led to a discussion that lunchtime. Is it still the Yardbirds if it’s only the drummer left? And not just Sam and Karen and Fiona in the discussion. Dave and Bill joined in. That’s never knowingly underopinionated Bill.

“So, it ain’t the Beatles if it’s just Ringo.”

“And it wouldn’t be the Stones if it’s just Charlie. It’d be some jazz combo.

“But it would be the Dave Clark Five with just Dave Clark.”

“If it’s Dave Clark and your granny on bongos, then It’s the Dave Clark Five.”

“If it’s Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, then It’s Fleetwood Mac.”

“Yeah, obviously, but it ain’t always the same Fleetwood Mac, is it?”

The argument didn’t get anywhere. But, like life, it ain’t the destination that matters, it’s the journey.

Anyway, it may just be the drummer at that Acoustic Tent gig, but he keeps them amused by telling tales of the old days.

And they play exactly what you want them to play. The hits like For Your Love and Heart Full of Soul. The older stuff like Over Under Sideways Down. The bluesy stuff like Smokestack Lightning.

Afterwards, Sam’s singing 10cc to himself. I’m not in love. He doesn’t really know it, just the bit about the picture hiding a stain on the wall and about big boys not crying.

He didn’t care for the song so much, but he’s been thinking about it all afternoon. Because that’s how brains work. It was Julie’s favourite song. It was how they started dating. It was a disco at a posh place in town. She’d come up to him and said it was her favourite song and said that she had no-one to dance to it with, and so would he like to dance with her? And he wasn’t stupid, so he said yes.

Fiona said to him: that’s not true, though is it? Real men do cry.