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The Shed April 15th 1969 2:45pm Manchester (UK) We were all at our drummers house that day, Sat around on the floor of our purpose made rehearsal room or "The Shed" as we used to call it, It was about 18 x 25ft and including the two air spaces and various other layers the walls were around 14inches thick, To aid this soundproofing measure there was not one window in the entire structure, literally the only way in or out was through the door at one end, Actually it was not one door but two, The outer door looked entirely normal apart from the fact that it was about 6 inches thick, The inner door was in fact an old oak wardrobe from which the back had been smashed out and then the rest had been grafted on to end wall, The idea behind this was to create a kind of air lock, The whole effect was surreal, Just a long room with an oak wardrobe at one end, If you sat in there on your own it could be quite disconcerting as the only sound you could hear was the sound of silence.
The days rehearsals had not gone to well really, Both myself and the rest of the band were struggling to bring the new song I had wrote to life, It was not for the want of trying, new material often refused to be born without a fight, It was was a literal breath of fresh air when John's Mum walked out of the wardrobe holding the customary 3pm tray, It always had an array of various sandwiches, cakes, biscuits and of course the four piping hot mugs of tea, Her interventions were always welcome as these breaks often resulted in a more productive second half.
We all sat down to tuck in to the goodies John's Mum had brought, She never stayed long, only to say the same things She always said "Right, there we are boys have a break and get some food inside you", and then "My word your all as thin as whippet's" after that she would always turn around and finally disappear back into the wardrobe from whence she came muttering something like, "Its not good for you cooped up in here, ain't no windows, sun or air, it's a wonder y'all don't choke to death, all that funny smellin smoke n'all, She always left the doors open for that reason but one of us would always get up and close them again, We liked to keep the smoke inside the room.
Food and tea finished we would then go on to desert, out came the beer and smoke, what followed was a discussion on what to do to bring the new song to life, Our Bass player was a guy called Brian Johnstone, he was a good friend of mine going way back to junior school, He said "Hey guys, I got an idea, let's play in the dark", Yeah man what a great idea lets do that said John, He was our drummer and we had built "The Shed in the back garden of his house.
When we shut all the lights off it went dark big time, gradually your eyes came into focus on the only thing they could, the orange/red power lights on the front of each amp, I remember the power light on Brians "Orange" amp, Minimal as it was it was enough to pick out the the silhouettes of the other two. For some reason I felt a bit strange, It was as if I was on my own all I could hear was the buzzing from all the amps, then out of the near darkness came the sound of a voice it sounded deafening and was accompanied by the sound of drumsticks being struck together, 12341234, We all came in bang on time, the resulting crashes were awesome, I was dreading the ninth bar as this was where I was to come in with the guitar introduction, Even though I had practiced it over and over during the last few days,today I had fluffed it on every occasion.
The solo was almost upon me.....Only one bar to go......1234 and in, My guitar ripped through the air like a rabid dog, bang on the money, note perfect raw aggression, I could not seem to go wrong, I was not playing what I had learnt to play, It was something entirely different, It was ten times faster and a hundred times better, There was however a slight problem, I knew my hands were playing something that was way beyond my limited ability, In short my hands were playing on there own, I was merely a spectator gazing along the maple fret board watching my own hands in complete awe. When the time came for me to start singing the first verse I felt like I was beginning to float.In came the the first verse, again bang on time really powerful,effortlessly slipping and gliding along the music, incredible perfection, There was another problem......It was not my voice,.... these were not the words I had wrote, I was scared:
If you see the silver cities of my mind, Never stray to close to them, Just pass them by, And if you hear me calling from the depths of time, In twisted rays of colored lights I'm hard to find, I am a very deceptive man, I will fool you if I can, I'll help you loose your mind then walk away.
In a flashing fierce electric storm I hear no sounds, I don't see the broken corpses all around, I don't care what happened, It was yesterday, Just empty headed politicians in my pay.
Halfway through these words I seemed to have been violently pushed out off the way, who or whatever was singing and playing had removed me from my own body, I was now floating about three feet above it, I could now clearly make out the four shapes below, I could see myself singing and playing, I knew that in the darkness someone or something had taken over my body, It was now using it as an instrument, much the same as I used my guitar. It seemed like an eternity to the end of the song, but finally the last massive chord crashed into the air, Slowly fading leaving only the buzzing amps, as the chord faded I was slowly restored back to my body............Silence, There was a click as someone turned the lights back on.
Nobody spoke, everyone just turned off their amps and just packed up their gear in a complete silence. As usual we walked down to the local pub as we always did, This time was different, after that last chord had faded away nobody including myself had uttered a word, Funny thing nobody ever uttered a word about that day, Nobody ever uttered a word ever since.
This little ditty is just one of my websites crazy but true stories, Did it really happen? Was it Alcohol and Weed? I don't know, I don't think I ever wil.
Ride On Brothers.
