Rear view
Phil Kay
On the rock’n’roll lifestyle
the w indxcrcen.
'l'he dclining momcnlx come in the arena. \mc thouxand l.eppard tanx are watching their choxcn headliner and I am thinking: ‘lx lhix c\cilmg or ix ll. ax it appearx. watered down old rocker xlul'l' with little energy left in it'."
lhc crowd are iuxt not going tor it and then I xce the moment. One guy ix up on the crowd. not xo much xui'ling ax iuxt floating in the dead xca. .\x hc
comcx up ti‘om two l‘tl\\\ hack.
we llC lx llttlttlt‘tl m er. ,.\[ nu“l “wk
gigx there are xecui'it} all
watching. waiting like it ix a game tor the nut moxher to n}
o\ er. 'lihcy catch them and
cxcot'l them out the xidc. ‘l'hix 31”} (“URN mcr and ix handed
into the air in tronl and there ix
up no xecurily to catch him. He .l“\l “"1 “l. $19“ kll't‘PPL‘ll tllllti
the floor. narrowly mixxing the
lap ol' a guy in a wheelchair.
who ix chatting with hix xon to
xecurily and photographcrx. l'lglll lk‘ltlw lllc l'cct Ul- lltc lettll \illgel'.
()n the way hack we get loxt in the almoxl country xide outxide llalilax and we haye to do a couple ot‘ liye-poinl mum in the limo. l nc\er mixx xtanding out the moon-root for one of lhcxe and ax we complete and driye till I xee we haye left a giant xtat' in hiding muddy tyre trackx on the road. all my xtet'ioux to work otit. like L‘t'tlp Cll'ClL‘\.
go to Shellield with three hrotherx and come hack with a
fourth. trayelling in a limouxine. It can do oy er a httndred
and ten yet. xumrixingly. the DVD player xtattx playing a bootleg ()t-mn'x Here” in black and w hite with xuhtitlcx that xlrangely can't he arxed hall the time. amhling around the point. redirecting the gixt. compiled. I imagine. by an Axian undergraduate behind xchedule. thinking that it' other t'olk are getting him to do .xuhtillex then they won't really he able to tell how well hc'x done.
One hrolher ix playing a long lender haxx in the hand xupporting Def Leppard here. The xemi-xeater all- xponxored arena ax maxxiyely cnormotIx ax giant xoullcxx cavern yenuex are ncyetthelexx qualitiex a.x the only room the the ol ux have been in together for yearx.
line hourx driying. getting tlxed to the xtei'eo heating control panel and finding out that the little hookx that pull out to hang a jacket on are illuminated by a tiny light that ix dimmahlc. watching the driyer watch (i/m/iutm' on hix own large laptop ax he xhillx ux hoat-xty le trom lane to lane with kickdow n.
'l‘here ix an ama/ing moment a.x we leaye (ilaxgow. A w eeixh older man ix on the other xide ot‘ the road croxxing towardx ttx. .xtopped in traffic. 'l'hrough our blacked out windowx we watch him teeter drunkenly through carx you would lime to w eay e through anyway. muttering a hit through hoo/e. Ax he noticex olll‘ length. he comex around. paxxex in front and. in the tnidxt of private cuxxing. xpitx onto the bonnet.
Well not really a .xpit: a kind of xylnholic re-enactmcnt ot‘ a xpitting action. the movement of the head. the attitude ot‘ the attitude. He ix wee and may not travel that far today and we haye hundredx of milex to drive the wee bit of .xaliya up the honnet gradually. .xpreading it out very thinly. making itx way toward
John Fardell
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120 THE LIST j’f Feb— 13 Mar ,‘i‘x‘d