'Thru The Flowers' - The Primitives (1987)

“You won’t ever know,
what it took to let you go.”

In the summer holidays of 1988, my cousin Matt and I decided to become writers for My Guy magazine. Yes, that’s right, the one with all the photo stories for young girls. Now obviously there were a few barriers to overcome. We hadn’t written a photo story before. And we didn’t exactly have that much insight into the minds of the target audience. But I’d read a few copies of my sister’s Just Seventeen. And, most importantly, Matt had actually been in a couple of My Guy photo stories. See? Doesn’t sound so stupid now, does it? Oh, alright, it still sounds kinda stupid.

Matt had been instantly typecast by My Guy as the ‘irresistible bad boy indie kid’, which meant he got to wear his Primitives T-shirt and leather jacket in every story. Using his insider knowledge we could surely sell a story of our own. Or perhaps not. A couple of rejection letters later it was time to head back to school and the project was forgotten. Until now. Well, actually, it’s still pretty much forgotten as I can’t recall anything we wrote. I’m quite sure I must have copies of those stories somewhere though – if they turn up, I’ll post some excerpts.

Spotify linky:

The Primitives – Thru' The Flowers

'Until I Believe In My Soul' - Kevin Rowland & Dexys Midnight Runners (1982)

“I was kind,
I was nice,
Where’s my prize?”

The first band I was in didn’t have a name. How very novel. It didn’t actually have any instruments either. It was my cousins Grant and Matthew. And me. With air guitars. And a drum kit made out of cardboard boxes. Each of us swapping roles with every song. It was all very odd behaviour for 21-year-olds. Only joking – ho, ho – we would have been about 11.

Our shows would take place in our grandparents’ front room, with a specially invited audience. ‘Specially invited’ meaning one of us would pop in to the back room mid-afternoon and ask our grandparents if they wanted to watch us basically shout along to some records for half an hour.

Dexys always sticks in my mind from those afternoons as ‘Too-Rye-Ay” was just out and came with a lyric sheet, so we’d sing along to almost every song off it. I remember we’d perform a particularly spirited version of ‘Until I Believe In My Soul’ – saxophone solo and all. Though I’m not sure how we got round the use of the f-word. I’m guessing one of us hovered over the volume knob.

Sadly for the world, musical differences didn’t pull us apart and we were soon learning real instruments for our next moment in the spotlight: The Bermuda Dimensions (yes, great name, I know). But more of that another time.

Spotify linky:
Dexy's Midnight Runners – Until I Believe In My Soul - BBC Richard Skinner Session 9/7/81
(Unfortunately, the album version isn’t on Spotify, but this is a mighty fine, non-sweary version.)