It's (sort of) about the role the Lurkers played in my teenage life - Gray Reeves

 

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE – TRUE LIFE CONFESSION

I was still at school when the Lurkers’ ‘Free Admission’ single came out.
Their first.
‘Shadow’ with ‘Love Story’ on the b-side.
It was absolutely pure punk rock and I loved it.

COMING IN ON MONDAYS

There were four punks at our school.

There was Trebor, the brainiest and most mature young man in a school for boys, who, by this time had already been talking of his sexual adventures for what seemed like years. He came in one Monday, his front teeth badly chipped by a padlock, worn, ill-advisedly, on a chain round his neck whilst pogoing to the Stranglers at the Hope and Anchor.

There was Shah-Guy who worked on a stall in Soho market at the weekends, and got me my copy of ‘Anarchy In The UK’ “off some bloke on another stall”. He came in one Monday with what we all thought was his creation of a serious punk hairdo. We were wrong. Someone had set light to his hair the day before.

Then there was me. I just came in on Mondays.

Finally there was John, who came in one Monday wearing a home-made badge. He’d copied Savage Pencil’s ‘Freakshow’ cartoon.
I recognised the dedication.
Known affectionately as Johnny Idiot, he owned an original copy of the Who’s ‘My Generation’ and liked, both, my Jonathan Richman tape and the safety-pinned bandages I wore on my arms as fashion accessories. He knew about the Lurkers.
Obviously we were going to be friends.
He encouraged me to spike up my hair and asked my opinion on what he should wear to the school disco. He eventually opted for a plastic mac with the legend ‘F*ck Off You C*nt’ painted in big white letters on the back. On the lapel was his Lurkers badge. Class!

MY HEART’S IN THE SHADOW

The school disco was special.
Special, not because I’d been drinking cans with my mates and puffing, but because Su was there.

OH MY, OH MY! CAN’T FORGET HER HAZEL EYES

Su was my mate Ali’s sister and I used to bunk off school to go round and watch telly with her.
Su never went to school.
Her family inhabited the same dysfunctional territory as the characters in the Lurkers’ songs and gave me my first intimation that things aren’t necessarily always right.
It was only fitting, then, that The Lurkers should provide such a large part of the soundtrack to my long hot summer – whether at 45 RPM on my record player, or at who-knows-what speed in my head.

YOU BOTH SAW ME AND SMILED

Su got off with my best mate Tel.
I didn’t mind too much.
Tel could play all the chords to ‘New Rose’.
That night he also publicly dropped the condoms his mum had bought him. He’d pulled out his wallet and the pack of three had flown from his pocket, arcing through the darkness like a distress flare from the lost but hopeful, landing at Su’s feet.
We all nearly pissed ourselves laughing.

INSIDE’S BURNING, EYES ARE OPEN WIDE

I wasn’t going to school very much by this time, and on the day ‘Ain’t Got A Clue’ hit the shops, I was hassling Pete Stennet at Small Wonder, my adopted second home, to hurry up and open the morning’s vinyl deliveries.

Pete lights a Camel Filter……lowers the stylus……there’s a crackle……Stride’s guitar…….Esso’s drums……”So sad I’m always running around, looking for fun all over town"……

This is f***ing fantastic!! I swear my pulse-rate quickens – I’m having this!!

Better yet, there’s a free flexi – ‘Fulham Fallout Firty Free’

 

YOU TAKE MY BREATH AWAY

Funny how we attach significance to things, isn’t it?
To me, that flimsy piece of plastic represented everything that punk was.
This wasn’t a promo gimmick.
This was a statement of defiance.
The Lurkers’ gold disk.

To hell with “the ultimate in pre-packaged punk”(NME) and “second division, sub-Ramones”(Everybody Else). This kind of criticism had always struck me as lazy. It also seemed to miss the point.

F*CK OFF MAN COZ WE DON’T CARE

Here were the Chaos Brothers, shouting it loud and proud.
Here – a million miles away from the Eagles and Yes – exactly where I wanted to be.
Here was de-mystification – from Esso exclaiming that he’d never before “shouted and played drums as well”, to Howard asking the listener “Wad’ya expect for nuffin?”

A free gift from the Lurkers – “Ner ner, ner ner ner”.
The message clearer than any of Porky’s prime scratchings on the run offs…….

……YOU COULD DO THIS…AND IT’S FUN!