Tina

I met Tina on my first day at school in Burradon. Her dad was the headteacher and mine the village policeman. Pillars of Society, as we are now, of course. I moved away to Shiremoor when I was 6 and we lost touch. If I had gone to the nice school by the seaside, we’d have met up again. When I joined the Northumberland Experimental Youth Theatre about 7 years later she was there again and we became firm friends, or possibly partners in crime. In the next few years we developed an abiding passion for Music, a lot of what John Peel played at the time, but mostly the ‘psychedelic rock’ epitomised by Love. We would sit in our bedrooms California dreaming, hoping that one day we’d see Love: see Arthur Lee in Real Life, maybe even meet him. Drinking cider from quart bottles on the swings in the local park we’d make plans and sort the world out.

We managed to keep in touch through university but then events intervened. Tina had her bag stolen, including her address book and when I didn’t hear from her for a while I stopped contacting her – sad eh?

What brought us back together some 20 years later was Love with Arthur Lee. After an eventful career including jail, Arthur got himself a band together and went on tour. I had seen Arthur Lee perform once in 1975 in Manchester. Not a great experience. It broke my heart really. I saw some dates in the paper and went along to a show in Milton Keynes by myself to see whether he was any better. I was amazed. They were so good. During the next few months I went to some great shows in Liverpool, Edinburgh, Leeds and Newcastle. I even took my family, they were that good. Love’s most acclaimed album Forever Changes combined the guitars and drums with an orchestra, and when it was announced that there would be a Forever Changes tour in 2003 with strings and horns I knew I had to go. I wanted to share the New Love with Tina, so I tired sending a list of tour dates inside a Christmas card to her last known address.

Tina got in touch, using her impressive deductive powers and we met up again at the Royal Festival Hall on 15 January 2003. It was a Mojo sponsored event and we met some of their people, I just missed getting into the after show and we caught up on a lot of years over a curry. Since then we’ve had a few adventures, been on life’s old roller coaster and kept in touch. She’s been a great support to me in recent months too.

Which, I think, shows that friends are friends and we all keep their threads running through us, ready to pick up. So, here’s to friendship, may it continue.