OUTSIDER ENTRY FIVE: LOST COLOURS, LEWIS, AND A LATE NIGHT FOOT MASSAGE

It’s Sunday and I feel rough. I’m in no state for a rehearsal. Get some breakfast I instruct myself. That will sort me out. I walk to the local breakfast café. On the way I bump into our Labour councillor Paul Wray. He stops me and asks to chat. I tell him “Sorry bud I know your name, but right now I haven’t got a clue about my own. I’d love to chat but I really need to cure this hangover, don’t worry I’ll be voting for you at the next election”. I’m assuming there is an upcoming election because I’ve never seen him around these parts before. Come to think of it I’ve never even seen our MP Hilary Benn. My only encounter with Mr Benn was receiving a Christmas card from him on the day he voted to join in the bombing campaign of Syria. I swiftly scrawled “MORE BOMBS??? Shove Your Card Up Yer Arse” and stuffed it back in its envelope and immediately sent it back to his office. At the recent local elections I’ll admit I switched my vote to the Green Party. I regularly see those guys in the area volunteering to clean up down by the river and local alleyways. That Ed Carlisle seems like a nice guy. I make it to the cafe which doubles as a convenience store. I stock up on supplies and return home with a Sausage and Egg sandwich. I make myself a chai tea to wash it down as I try to recall the night before. How did I get into this mess?

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I’d gone out with Pollock, Will, and his friend. We’d arranged to go see Lost Colours at a trendy venue on the outskirts of town on the site of the old Tetley Brewery. Lost Colours is a project that Grant helps with. They are a psychedelic-cinematic-electronica outfit. They remind me of acts like UNKLE or Spacemen 3. They have nice groove, nicely balancing out the need for ambience and energy. The crowd is quite sociable. Chatting whilst grooving to the band and its visuals. Everyone looks particularly colourful. I was planning on wearing my brightly coloured festival jacket but instead I decided to wear a shirt instead, its quite a warm night out and thought I might overheat in a jacket. I spend the night dancing and chatting to anyone who was in my proximity. I’ve not had a night out for a while. I’d even forgot what it’s like to be out flirting and dancing with strangers. I always have fun when I’m out. Pollock, Will, and his friend are happily talking to each other and soaking up the vibes whilst I float about the room.

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Amongst the crowd I find Grant who is helping organise the evening. Although he is a little under the weather he appears to be enjoying himself. We talk for a while and after the gig he introduces me to Martyn from Lost Colours. He is very welcoming and we talk a little about influences, I compliment the show and also the album which has been on heavy rotation in my house. There’s a nice energy coming from him. A creative soul. I hope someday we can work together on a project.

The event closes at 1am and its time to leave. Pollock and myself are always up for more drinks. Its not unusual for us to still be drinking past daybreak. Especially when we’re in the mood for it. We convince the others to join us for some more booze and head back to my house where we listen to the new Underworld and Iggy Pop E.P. it’s a great post-club record. I pour out some rum and instruct my guests that they’ll not be able to mix it with coke, because firstly I don’t have any and secondly this rum is too nice to be mixed with that filth.

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I don’t know why or how but somehow I manage to convince Will of all people to give me a foot massage. He must be drunk. Pollock cannot contain his laughter. We spin more records into the early hours. Primal Scream, Matthew Logan Vasquez, and Brian Jonestown Massacre. I’m dancing in my living room. 5am and Pollock is the last to leave and I head off to bed with a mint tea. I smiled as I fell asleep.

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After finishing my breakfast I go back to bed and I’m awoken at 1.30pm when Will arrives to pick me up for rehearsal. This week we have Lewis coming to play through the album on drums. Lewis has been around the scene for years he is currently fronting a great band called Pleasant Boys. He is an outstanding all round musician. Both Will and myself are huge fans. Will is especially looking forward to it. He even announces that he is a fan boy. Lewis turned up sporting some custom drum sticks with his name carved into them. He explains that these were bought for him as a gift and that he didn’t specifically order the sticks with his name on out of ego. I ask him if he had chance to listen to the demos and he says, “Yeah lets do this”.

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We smash through the album twice. Lewis plays with the kind of ferocity that befits a band like ours. Each song feels badass. We’re all playing with a higher intensity than when we played with Grant or Sylvia. I have to remind the guys that we’ll need to slow some of the songs down as I’m struggling to get the words out. My voice feels weak after the night out but I’m really enjoying sweating the alcohol out of my system. The P.A. in the rehearsal room isn’t the best and my microphone is so sensitive that it keeps on feeding back. I have to reduce all the bass and most of the treble out of the mix, which leaves my voice sounding odd. We can work with it for now though. Vince is playing incredible. It’s nice to have a real bass player in the band. Though I am still missing Dempsey. Actually I did see Dempsey during the week. He helped me take my cat Yowzer to the vet. I asked him if he will be joining us in the studio and he said he hopes to come down when we’re recording. I said I’d like that. Will is on the other side of the room. He is looking ropey. Still knackered from the night before he spends all of the session sat on a stool. His playing is out of this world though. There is a lot of guitar solos on this album. He’s in his element. After three hours we are out of steam. We pack up and head back home where I pass out on the sofa for a few hours.

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