Thunder… thunder and lightning… All night long and half of today. One kid in one of my year 7 classes today was terrified of the thunder and started crying. It was a real shame, I felt sorry for her even though it disrupted the lesson. Jenny and I talked to her afterwards, and Jenny said that the thunder was just the clouds having a fight. The kid smiled at that. Me, I love the storms. I recall one awesome night our cub scout pack went on an outing to Ayr police station, and I rode in the front seat of the top deck of a bus watching the lightning crack from the green clouds over the bay and Arran. I recall too storms in Key West, watching the lightning rip apart the sky at night.

I made my first tape of the summer last night. Inspired partly by the fact that yesterday was sunny and hot; the first really warm day of the year. I rode to school and back as a celebration, and then instead of sitting in front of a computer in the evening I sat in the heat of the attic and made the following tape:

the association: the machine . the association: one too many mornings . the mamas and papas: go where you wanna go . the ballroom: magic time . gary usher and the usherettes: three surfer boys . beach boys: help me Rhonda . the ramones: something to believe in . the boys: first time . comet gain: a million and nine . the go-betweens: Newton told me . golden rough: provenance . beach boys: be still . curt boettcher: misty mirage . the kinks: days . the shins: caring is creepy . the teardrop explodes: when I dream

colourbox: the official colourbox world cup theme . new order: shellshock . Stockholm monsters: all at once . Josef k: applebush . the wild swans: revolutionary spirit . the associates: club country . hurrah! : hip hip . love: can’t explain . the lovin’ spoonful: summer in the city . the association: better times . the yellow balloon: follow the sunshine . the free design: bubbles . glen Campbell: guess I’m dumb . sandy salisbury: goody goodbye

All day today I’ve been singing that gary usher and the usherettes/honeys song. I can’t get that chorus out of my head: ‘three surfer boys, sitting in their woody, waxing their boards instead of huggin’ and a-kissin’, they don’t know what they’re missin’…’ Addictive stuff. Also played a couple of old Stockholm Monsters tracks before settling on ‘All At Once’ and remembered I always meant to say that tracks like ‘the longing’ and ‘lafayette’ were blueprints for the early Inspiral Carpets sound, and you know if I’d had the time I’d have dug out that ‘Keep The Circle Around’ single to resurrect for my tape, because it’s still one of thee greatest soaraway summer pop singles ever.


posted by duke harringay at 9:36 AM