• Main
  • Fiction
    • Going Back
      • One Hour Before
      • One week before
      • June 1978 – an extract from Going Back
    • Shore Leave
      • Shore Leave – an extract
    • A Little Bird Told Me
    • The Tip Run
    • Damnation’s Cellar
    • Tender Blue
    • The Flyer
    • Middletown Dreams
    • Morningside Crescent – an extract
  • Non Fiction
    • Dear Friends
    • 50 Musical Memories
    • Rediscovering Rush Intro
      • Rediscovering Rush
    • Left-handed under the Iron Curtain
    • Let’s do the show right here…
    • Home away from home – Alba
  • About
  • Blog
  • The 60at60 index
  • Mastodon
Richard Watt

50MM: 21: Prefab Sprout

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Richard

What I said back then:

Nothing.  I’m not certain that I crossed them off the list – perhaps they weren’t on it in the first place.  Which is daft.

What I think now:

All good things have to come to an end, pill of course, and university life is undoubtedly, in spite of the often unhygienic living conditions and the frequent inexplicable hangovers, a good thing.  I drifted for a bit, listening to The Smiths, then I landed a job selling books.  I never intended it to be a long-term thing, but I stuck it out for five years in the end.  One momentous thing which happened early on in my bookselling career was that Zoe and I decided to get married (I asked; she accepted, it was more romantic than I’m making it out to be).

We considered our parlous financial state, and quickly came to understand that we couldn’t hope to afford to live in Aberdeen, Europe’s booming oil capital.  So, less than a year after I started, I was applying for a transfer to Inverness, which – fortunately – worked out, and explains why, the first time I heard ‘Faron Young’, I was heading back to my temporary home, a B&B on the shores of the River Ness.  I was immediately struck by its quirkiness, and resolved to find out more, which almost certainly involved a trip to yet another branch of ‘The Other Record Shop’.

Over the years, this oddly-named and enigmatic band take quite a hold of me – I loved the silly pop singles; I find myself eagerly anticipating  new releases, and they are still with me when I’m thundering in and out the back roads of Hertfordshire ten years later, trying to get to work at something approximating a civilised hour.

I even bought two copies of Jordan: the Comeback; one for me, and one to press on an unsuspecting work colleague as a Secret Santa present; I don’t know her all that well, but I know she’ll love this.  To this day, ‘Jordan’ is somewhere around the top half of any top ten album list I certainly don’t ever make, not being Nick Hornby.  It’s pretty close to perfection, and is one of the vanishingly few double albums you can say that about.  Tough to listen to, though, because once I start, I have to listen to it all; it’s a little like a symphony in that it loses some of its meaning broken into smaller chunks.

Except, perhaps, for ‘Scarlet Nights’, a study in perfect.

Since then:

Just a brief mention for the post-Sprout career of Paddy McAloon, a man beset by obstacles and difficulties his whole life, it seems.  Please take the time to check out ‘I Trawl the Megahertz’ – it’s not quite like anything you’ve heard before; strikingly odd, and to these ears, a masterpiece.

Posted in 50 Musical Memories, Writing |
« 50MM: 22: Kirsty MacColl
50MM: 20: Penguin Cafe Orchestra »

Richard Watt

  • About
  • Home page

Archives

  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • December 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2016
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • December 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • March 2009
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • October 2005
  • September 2005
  • August 2005

Categories

  • 50 Musical Memories
  • 60at60
  • Beatles
  • Book Reviews
  • Dear Friends
  • Music
  • Pink Floyd
  • Rediscovering Rush
  • Shore Leave
  • Tangents
  • Work in Progress
  • Writing

Categories

CyberChimps WordPress Themes

© Richard Watt