Being an 80's fan I loved Glam Rock, I mean LOVED it. That style of music was the only style I would listen to both back then and even now, I am converted. Before travelling to Europe I made a cassette tape of all of my favourite Glam tunes, it was possibly the greatest selection of music ever taken to the other side of the World, in my eyes anyhow.
I took my 'Walkman' with me, you know the Cliff Richard style 'Wired For Sound' headset with earphones that we all used to be seen walking or riding with when we were kids. The cassette tapes that fitted into the Walkman often got stuck and you would spend countless minutes or more rewinding the tape back in with either a biro or pencil. All part of the 'luxury' of owning one.
The Walkman was invaluable as far as tuning out from each other on the trip between tournaments as you can only put up with someone for so long before you have a difference of opinion on something, then all hell can break loose. Now the music on this particular tape was tunes from my favourite bands of all time namely Def Leppard, Kiss, Cheap Trick to name a few. The tape was my sanity, just like the words of Guns 'N Roses classic hit 'Sweet Child of Mine' ........." reminds me of childhood memories where everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky".....
The tape reminded me of home, of all things good and it took me to another place in my head when I needed some sanity. After all here I was in Europe driving from tournament to tournament with two mates from home and not knowing what lay ahead. We were all flying blind so my escape from reality was my music, it always has been but not just any old music, it had to be Glam.
The tape got a run in both Pete and Brett's Walkman also and it hit a chord with both of them, they loved it, probably more so Brett than Pete but they both appreciated my taste in music. The issue with lending a tape to a mate is the danger factor of it all. What if it gets caught in their Walkman and is ruined ? I would have been lost without that 90 minutes of sanity that I played from start to finish and then finish to start on a daily basis for two months. As I said, my sanity.
So it was of no surprise that when Pete did in fact get the tape caught in his Walkman there was a panic, so much so that the car was pulled over at a public toilet and Pete took his music in with him. Why would you do that ?? Little be known to me Pete needed to fix the tape before giving it back to me because if that tape had been ruined they were both well aware that I would have in fact belted someone.
The funny thing was this, I was totally oblivious to it all as I stayed in the car while Pete and Brett made their way to the public toilet block and fixed it, together. The tape was handed back to me from memory further down the road " Hey Thommo thanks for the tape, great tunes, here you go ". "No wuz, glad you enjoyed". I believe that when we went out for a beer that night the whole episode was spelled out to me, perhaps in Pidgin English just to spice it all up "Hey Aussie Glenn, your music tape, very, very good, needed fixing, toilet stop, we did fix, you not know, but you do now". Words to that effect anyhow. Pricks.
Just another episode that could be looked upon as trivial and not worth a mention but to us three Aussies driving around Europe in Le Car, well, it was all part of the fun and worthy of a chapter....
No comments:
Post a Comment