I left school in the November of 1979, having just re-taken some of my "O" levels. Somehow I managed to scrape out with four passes at grade c or above, so not too bad in the end. Trouble is, it was too bad for plan A. This was to be 6th form for "A" levels, then university to study something that I had not worked out at the time. Plan B was needed. I decided to try to get work in the travel agency business, despite countless letters to local firms, nothing materialised. I then saw a post offered via an employment agency, so went to speak to them. They said my qualifications were not of a good enough standard for what I wanted, but had I considered insurance? Whether this was true, or the fact that they had an insurance vacancy to fill I will never know, but hey it got me a job.
I was to start working in Ealing for a major insurance company at the start of January 1980. To kill time, and to get some beer money, I took a holiday job for three weeks with a local freezer company, similar in style to Iceland. This mainly involved running into and out of massive great freezer stores, looking for various different sizes of turkeys! We were provided with protective gloves, but when you are doing it non stop all day, you just go for it in the end.
At this time. I think I would say that my Christian faith was a case of just going through the motions. My best mate got me to go along to a schools Christian Union, or similar, event over the new year period in Sussex. I went, even though I was no longer at school. For probably the first time, things began to make sense, and I "owned" a faith rather that just being there as that was what was expected of me. The ironic thing is that Phil no longer has anything to do with Christianity, but there's always hope mate! At this event, I hooked up with a rather nice girl, and attempted to have a postal relationship with her. As these things tend to do, it soon died a natural death, but it had an indirect major influence on me.
Early in 1980, a romantic ballad called Babe by Styx hit number six in the top forty. It included the following lines:
Babe, I'm leaving, I must be on my way
The time is drawing near
My train is going, I see it in your eyes
The love, the need, your tears
But I'll be lonely without you
And I'll need your love to see me through
Please believe me, my heart is in your hands
And I'll be missing you.
Now to me, these lines had a pertinent ring to them at the time, so I bought two copies of the single, one for her and one for me! I found the B side I'm Okay to be better, so got the two albums that these two songs were on, Cornerstone, and Pieces of Eight. I was hooked, Styx were and still are, in my opinion, an awesome band. Through Styx, I then got into the likes of REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, and the Alan Parsons Project. My appreciation of rock started to widen, so the rest as they say is history.
It is ironic to think, that a song that I now regard as complete and utter garbage got me and Phil into our favourite band, and indirectly got Phil to meet his second wife. As that went pear shaped, I hope he doesn't hold it against me!
So here is the original version of Styx recorded in 1979 singing Babe, which was written by the keyboard player, Dennis de Young, for his wife.
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