“Caught me in a dream so divine,
I was made of stone with a spotless mind, It all makes me wonder, just for free,
Love should have brought you home just for me”
M.S. Westerik
We were living together in a two bedroom townhouse in Fairview. On that Saturday morning in 1993 my Soulmate was already at work in Peter Marks on Grafton St., and Micky was still in bed, as I sat on our sofa with a large bowl of Rice Krispies watching Live & Kicking on BBC1. I’d only started to watch it because it was showing Rugrats, possibly the most under-rated cartoon of all time , and then just carried on watching to see what came next.
“And now with the first single from their new album, here, live in studio we have The Breeders with ‘Cannonball’ !” Andi Peters shouted excitedly. This did not imply that Andi Peters liked The Breeders, this song, or was in fact excited, he sounded like that ALL the time…which must have been quite exhausting. I can still feel the tingle from the opening bass chords of Cannonball. I was mesmerised. When the song finished I was frozen , stock still, my spoon of now mushy Rice Krispies , halfway between the bowl and my mouth.
I got dressed and went straight into Freebird Records and bought the CD. And by the time Eileen came home from work I’d almost worn it out , and driven Micky demented , by playing it over and over again.
“This is the best song EVER !” I told everyone I met for at least the next 17 weeks.
I was sure that it was going to be Number 1, an instant classic.
It reached Number 40.
And yet…
On Saturday last I drove up to Dublin to go to see Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark play in Trinity College with my aforementioned best friend Micky. Our other best friend, Ronan, had organised guest passes for us. He’s the guy responsible for the annoyingly expensive merch tents at gigs all across Europe. Micky and I had never been ‘guests’ at a gig before. Technically I have been a ‘guest’ at Electric Picnic courtesy of my sometimes friend Benny , although my wrist band says ‘Production’. Obviously I don’t contribute anything , other than standing around in an orange hi-viz vest and telling actual production people how clever they are and saying ‘Well done, that’s fantastic’ a lot.
On Saturday we were bona fide guests with our one entrance and everything. Most importantly we had access to the VIP bar , which had seats, a very rare commodity at any outdoor gig. Thee was next to no queue at the bar, AND Guinness had a special machine there which could scan your photo onto the head of your pint. Not everyone was as fascinated by this as I was. By the time I came back from the bar with our drinks Micky had already engaged the group sitting nearest to us in conversation. Micky is like that. You can’t turn your back to him for a second before he’s introduced himself to the nearest stranger and is already exchanging phone numbers before you’ve turned back around. This group were from Armagh. We chatted about previous gigs we’d been at, how great Monaghan is, and why one of their party had no soul because he didn’t like Queen or Abba. I went to the bar again and came back to find Micky smirking. I knew he was dying to tell me something. After the Armagh group left to get their spot out in the crowd for the gig, Micky told me that the lady who’d been sitting next to him had asked her “How long have the two of you been a couple ?”. Micky was quite flattered by this, as was I. He said he hadn’t known what to say in reply. I told him that in future he should say that no , we’re not gay, we just moisturise.
During the gig we were surprised at how many of the songs we remembered. At one point I left Micky to go up to the front to get a good photo, and when I came back, yes, Micky was having an in depth conversation with a lovely lady and her much more reserved husband. She thought we were brothers. Micky asked me to show her the photo I’d taken of us with Mike Mills from REM a few weeks ago.
“Do you know him ?” she asked in surprise.
My no was drowned out by OMD singing about Joan of Arc, and Micky shouting ‘YES !’.
“You should get them to play here next year.” Her husband said.
“REM ? They haven’t played together in over 10 years.”
“Get them to get back together and play here. This place would be perfect for them. But don’t have them play on a Wednesday, I have Pilates on a Wednesday.”
“Sure…leave it with me…”
We had a pint in Bowe’s on the way home. I stayed the night and had a decent fry the next morning with Micky and Helena. They started going out shortly after Eileen and I did and we have all lived great lives together. It’s a friendship rather like our cat Tuna. It fends for itself most of the time, but needs a good cuddle every so often.
As a very young man I was a bit lost when I gave up the Holy Ghost Fathers. I had joined up thinking I was going to save the world. One day , out of nowhere, Micky said to me “Maybe your job isn’t to save the world. Maybe , at some point, you’ll bump into the boy or girl who is meant to save the world, and all you have to do is be nice, smile, encourage them, or just not get in their way.”
I’ve always loved that.
And I’ve always loved Micky.
On my way home I stopped at Applegreen, yes, the one at Lusk, heading North on the M1. I passed by the crows on my way in and when I was buying myself a coffee and a donut, I decided to buy a second one , to share with the crows on my way back out.
My phone rang. It was The Hannon.
“What are you doing ?” She asked.
“You’d never guess in a million years.”
“Go on then,”
“I’m at the Applegreen at Lusk.”
“I probably would have guessed that eventually.”
“I’m breaking up donuts and feeding them to the crows. I have thirteen of them gathered around me.”
“Why would you do that ?”
“Who wouldn’t want their own murder of crows ? OH LOOK that one caught it in mid flight.”
The Hannon laughed, I laughed.
On my way to the car a wee girl at the next table started throwing her fries to my crows. “LUCY ! Stop that !” her mother admonished. I smiled at the wee girl and she winked at me.
Could be ….
Although the Breeders ‘Cannonball’ did not achieve chart success, Kim Deal the lead singer, guitarist and writer for the group is regularly cited by Taylor Swift, Haim, Wet Leg, Florence Welch,The Pillow Queens and many others as showing them that someone just like them can have their own band.
You never know the influence you are having on others.
Smile.
Be kind.
Feed the crows.
Play bass.
Tell your friends that you love them.
Moisturise.
Toodles,
Paul
P.S. This, like you ,, changed my life. The Breeders, Cannonball.
