A Life Defined By Music - Oliver's Army

In the last post, I mentioned that the way I chose to deal with the bullying at school was not my best career move. Instead of knuckling down and studying hard, I took the easy option, that of messing around. That way my grades dropped, but I was left in relative peace. I realised too late that this was not the best way to get the grades needed to do anything half decent. My school had "O" level options that worked against me as well, timetable constraints meant I had to sit two languages and two sciences, both of which are not me. I was not allowed to do two of the subjects I wanted to. As a result I had to resit some exams, but just about got away with a credible outcome.

The years running up to the exams were 1977-79. My memories of this time involve cycling five miles to the next village to play football with my mates. Also spending countless summer afternoons in Windsor, annoying the hell out of the tourists for the fun of it! The Italians were the easiest to wind up if I remember rightly. This was also the time when I first really discovered girls, though unfortunately for me they did not want to discover me! They preferred the idea of friendship with me to anything deeper, if you can be deep as a teenager.

Over this period, there was a sudden and dramatic change in the style of music available. Suddenly the punk and new wave scene took off. It was loud, in your face, and anti-establishment. Whereas I did not get totally immersed in the culture, I did really get bitten by the music. The likes of Blondie, The Jam, The Stranglers, The Undertones, Sex Pistols, Sham '69, The Clash, and The Ramones all found their way into my ever increasing record collection. The best of the lot though, in my opinion, were Elvis Costello and The Attractions. Here was a talented songwriter, with a good voice, doing short sharp incisive lyrics, backed by a equally sharp band. In fact the Armed Forces album is still one of my all time favourites. The artwork featuring the elephant graveyard is also awesome.

Oliver's Army is my favourite track from this era. It is also part of a musical genre unique to me, "music to fail your "O" levels to"!