Hello. Welcome to my mid-life crisis, Volume IV, Chapter 6; reforming a band. Yes, that’s right. I’m doing what the Stone Roses are doing but on a much smaller scale. I believe they are doing Festivals and World Tours; we’re looking at filling the Crown and Mitre in Newark, Nottingham. It’s a different world but the same sentiment; nostalgia (and a few million quid for the Roses, obviously).
Let’s start from the beginning. I used to be in a band. I was in several bands but this one was one of my favourites. We were called ‘Sock’ and I was the singer. No-one knows why we were called Sock but we were big in the nineties (in Newark). It was around the same time as the Roses coincidently but we were probably much more inspired by the Happy Mondays; inspired by their lifestyle rather than their music. We liked a drink. And we liked performing drunk. There was a touch of rock n’ roll about us but really it was all a front to cover up our inadequacies as musicians (much like the Mondays). We knew that, our audience knew that but somehow it didn’t matter. We were all in it together. This was the nineties, man.
'Like my earring? Cool, eh?'
You have to remember this was 1992 and there was very little going on in a small market town in Nottingham. You made your own entertainment and once we’d got bored of drinking thunderbird in the local park, the only thing left for us to do, was to form a band. Once we had a band, we needed an audience and despite all of its faults, Newark did have a thriving student scene, who were also bored and looking for something to do. It was a perfect fit. Come and see a band. Get drunk with us. Dance with us. You could even sing a long (we didn’t really have ‘lyrics’). For one night only, we’re going to forget all this impending adulthood and have a good time.
We did well. We released an EP, we did some big gigs both in Newark and Nottingham and we got the girls. You can’t really ask for anything more. I mean a career would have been nice but deep down we knew we were just in it for the crack. Not literally. Crack wasn’t invented until 1994.
Anyway, I digress. We’re reforming. It’s our 20th anniversary this year and we’re doing a one-off gig back in Newark in June. Many of our fans still live there and hope to come if they can get babysitters. We’re over the moon and very excited and all those feelings as a 21 year old come flooding back. We’ll drink less. We’ll probably be tired by midnight. And we’re not aloud to pull any groupies because our wives would probably disapprove. But once we’re on stage, we know that magical feeling will return and for one night only, we’ll be young again.
I bloody love a mid-life crisis.