SF0190 Promises, Pacts and Pledges

I’ve been going on a European Tour during the last couple of months, and in the last week revisited my old university town.

Oxford is indeed a magical city. You can criticise it for being out of touch with the modern world, sure. But as my friend and I walked around its mediaeval lanes, past its snoozing spires and through its historic gardens, our minds inevitably roved backwards through time to the promises of youth. So, after passing the theatre where the Buzzcocks once performed supported by Joy Division, and reminiscing about the legendary Scamps, sadly no longer with us, scene of gigs by The Birthday Party, 23 Skidoo, Orange Juice and where I first saw The Fall, our steps turned towards the streets of Jericho and its Tavern.

Why thence? Legendarily it provided the debut stage for both Radiohead and Supergrass, so good enough reason in itself. The lady behind the bar very kindly took us upstairs to have a look at the stage. At this point I revealed I was not on a Radiohead pilgrimage, as she suspected, but rather surveying the site of my own band’s, ahem, triumphant debut performance: that of the Gloom Brothers in 1982. Fond memories indeed. It looked the same, I’m happy to relate, right down to the squeaky floorboards.

Downstairs in the bar, we fell into discussion. What about our youthful promise, we chuckled. Well, some people have their lives marked out from an early age. They forge extravagant ambitions to be a footballer, prime minister or the first man on Mars. I never really knew what I wanted to be. A pop star? Hardly. I couldn’t sing. So, perhaps because I never promised myself I would achieve this that or the other, I’ve never been disappointed. Possibly I should have been more ruthless with my KPI setting, but I’ve preferred bobbing along through life, like a cork on the ocean. You have to have luck though, and I’ve been tremendously lucky thus far.

I guess in society the ability to make and honour promises has helped us form stable groups and cooperative societies. Promises signal reliability and intention. When I was young though I didn’t promise myself anything and I haven’t been disappointed.

Which brings me to some of the lovely songs on this episode, and one in particular – Daniel Johnston’s plaintive True Love Will Find You In The End. The thing is true love never did find him in the end. But since none of ever knows for sure when ‘the end’ will be, you could say Daniel never knew that the song’s promise was ultimately broken. And since he went through life with the reassurance that true love would find him in the end, he was never disappointed.

I too hope that true love will find you in the end. But hey, if it doesn’t, I guess you’ll never know.