Trailblazing
‘How the devil are you?’
‘Jimmy? My god, it’s been ages! You haven’t changed a bit. Still got all your hair, and still no beer gut. How the hell do you do it?’
The Poet had entered the Gopher Hole and had asked the bouncer for Matt, who by chance happened to be there that night. The light was dim and the music was loud. Gardenia by Kyuss, the Poet thought.
‘Still into Stoner rock, eh, Matt? I suppose that’s what broke the Post Moderns up in the end. We could never agree on what was great music could we?’
‘I know. All you wanted was to look elegantly wasted and play you fucking power pop. What kind of a genre is that anyway? These days pop is Lady Gaga and La Roux and back then pop was the Spice Girls and Rick Astley.’
The Poet realized Matt hadn’t changed much over the years when it came to tastes in music or rather opinions on music, and any subculture related to whatever was popular at the moment. Back in the 70s and 80s trends lasted a little longer than now.
‘Oh for crying out loud Matt, power pop was a phenomenon that started in the early 70s when American bands like the Raspberries and Big Star started to make catchy rock with a clear Beatle influence at a time when the Beatles were quite out of fashion. The bridge between the Beatles and power pop were the British band Badfinger. None of these bands were very successful when they existed but… oh for god’s sake, I didn’t drag my skinny ass down here to educate you in music you played in the Post Moderns 20 years ago!’
Kuyss ended and some horrible techno track came on. The Poet felt sick and regretted having come down here at all. ‘Matt, seriously have you heard from Terry? I had this idea of reforming the Post Moderns, but it can’t be done without him. Last I heard he was missing. AWOL’
Matt looked bemused as if the thought of reforming the band was absurd in itself, or maybe he was just shocked by the directness of the statement. Was he invited to join or was this something Jimmy had planned without him in mind?
‘Yeah, so I heard. He was down here looking for someone little over a year ago, but I wasn’t in at the time. Let me check with Melanie, she might have been here that night…’
The Poet went over to the bar and got himself, what he knew would be the first of many beers and waited. He had a nasty habit (OCD?) of checking his (still flat) gut every time he ate or drank anything. A couple in one of the booths regarded him suspiciously, and he sighed. He wasn’t fat or even slightly overweight and would never be. ‘Maybe I should seek help for this’ he thought to himself as Matt came sauntering over with a strange look on his face:
‘He was in here in June of 2010, on a Friday looking for Godfrey King!’
Godfrey King—the legendary tycoon and owner of Kings Road Management was without doubt one of the most infamous characters of the late twentieth century music industry. Both the Post Moderns and Burning Desire had at one point been a part of the Kings Road roster. It’s no understatement to say that both band’s relationships with Kings Road Mgmt ended in bitter tears, especially for the Poet, who has a history of falling out with people like King. ‘A trail to follow’, the Poet thought to himself as his mind started to drift down memory lane…
