Bobbie, Drunkeness, the Buzzcocks and Boredom

I am proud to announce that my youngest daughter takes after her Mum. I'm getting a bit old now so I like to get to bed early and get my eight hours so I was verging on pushing out the zeds last night when my husband came upstairs and told me that he had just received a call from one of Bobbie's friends. Bobbie was in a pub called the Crazy Muskrat or some such name and, more specifically, was in the toilets puking up and could we come and collect her?

Now, Hubby Dearest had had a few drinks and so we decided that I would have to do the driving and because I was still a bit groggy, he would accompany me. We got to the pub, he got out of the car and rang Bobbie's mobile. A few minutes later one of the girls emerged from the pub and spoke earnestly to my husband. Then our 16 year old daughter, Bobbie emerged arm first (that's what I saw first, anyway), slightly the worse for wear after 4 pints of Stella, followed by her 17 year old boyfriend, Raj.

Bobbie got in the back of the car with her Dad and snuggled up to him and Raj sat in the passenger seat and we took him home first. Then we took Bobbie home and she went to bed with a glass of water. She was a little bit hungover this morning but otherwise well enough. She's actually rather charming when she's drunk. A bit giggly and silly but still charming.

I got very drunk two weeks ago today but I didn't end up being sick or having to be brought home. It did mean, however, that I was hungover the next day and the hangover persisted until well into the evening. I went to see the Buzzcocks in Preston that night and I wouldn't recommend going to a gig with a hangover. It spoils it.

We saw three support bands. The first were not memorable at all. The second were called the Aclyrics and I enjoyed the set. The third were great. A young punk band called Middle Finger Salute. They have a loyal following, including a young and quite small skinhead called (if I remember rightly) Danny, who made a bit of a prat of himself directly in front of me. Still, he is young and was probably drunk so I'll make allowances for him. I usually make allowances for skinheads; I can't help myself. They (Middle Finger Salute) were pretty good. Good enough for me to go and buy the CD after their set and add them on MySpace and keep sending them messages. I will go and see them again. I really rather liked them (praise indeed from me!)

Then the Buzzcocks came on. I was still hungover and my feet were beginning to hurt (my docs are not the most comfortable boots I own) but nothing was going to spoil the main act for me. They played a lot of stuff I don't know but it was fine. I'm more a connoisseur of the classic Buzzcocks - Ever fallen in love, I don't mind, Orgasm Addict, Promises and, of course, my favourite, Boredom. They played most of the classics in the encore and in true Rennie style, every time they played one of these an expression of beatific rapture came over my face, I shut my eyes and bellowed the lyrics at the stage. Happiness indeed!

This put me in mind of a minor incident that took place at home a few years ago. The kids were still quite small back then and we still had a record player. I was playing some of my singles to the kids (building the foundations of good musical taste for later life - none of my children like R & B and other such rubbish) and, inevitably I suppose, I put my favourite Buzzcocks song on. The kids started bouncing up and down on the sofa and I told them to stop jumping up and down on it. At the time, I was in my punk wilderness years and trying desperately hard to be respectable. Then I realised to my horror what I had done and I told them to get back on and start jumping again. You can't keep an old punk down, can you?

Here's a video of them performing it in Blackburn recently. Buzzcocks and Boredom that is, not kids and sofa. Enjoy!