The Only Ones

Blimey, what a band. I saw them at Hull University in 1977 and it was one of those gigs that is burned on to my mental hard drive with a setting of "permanent". I was particularly impressed with the way that the guitarist, John Perry, never had to look down at his guitar while he played, even when he was playing not only all the right notes, but in the right order too. He just stared out the audience and sneered at us. I went home afterwards and practiced that...a lot.

Now don't get the wrong impression...I wasn't a student; I was one of those local oiks who had to blag their way in to the Union every time they got a decent band on who otherwise wouldn't play anywhere closer than Doncaster. But once we mastered the skills of talking in poncey upper class Cockerney accents and drinking lager shandy no-one suspected us for a minute. Oh no. University of Life, me.

But "Another Girl, Another Planet"? As they played it I distinctly remember thinking to myself, yeah, not a bad song, but wouldn't it be better as the background music in an advert for a mobile phone network in about thirty years time?

Such vision in one so young (42).

Next week: how I predicted the threat of Global Warming back in 1945. (5A1 Geography)