OCCUPIED COUNTRY

I used to be the main express..all steam and whistles heading west... I was sat in my office gazing at the slate grey scudding skies of summer and musing - as one is want to do when the task in hand is tediously uninspiring - on life, the universe and everything.  I became aware of the dull pain in my left hip, probably the beginning of some form of arthritis according to the Doc.  I was also conscious of the fact that I would soon be needing the toilet again as the diuretic prescribed to help with my blood pressure took effect.  I removed my glasses to clean them and realised I was helpless without them.  I was struggling to keep my eyes open after another restless night and I knew I had hours of tedium in front of me.  Suddenly a thought hit me! I'm past my prime. In fact I'm well past my prime.  My prime must have been way back because, the more I thought about it, the more I couldn't actually pinpoint when my prime was.  This was disconcerting.  Had I ever had a prime?  Does anyone ever have a prime?  I know that Miss Jean Brodie was confident in her assertion that 'she was in her prime' but I seem to recollect that it was more an act of desperation - although I could be wrong, my memory certainly isn't in it's prime. I'm coming to the conclusion that a prime can only be recognised after it's gone and then it's more of a 'I must've been in my prime then' assumption.  I guess I was in my prime in my late 20s - early 30s when I was playing table-tennis, squash, football on a regular basis.  When I would be enjoying some rough and tumble with my kids and when I was working long hours and walking 6 miles a day to get there and back. I didn't feel in my prime though.  In fact I was knackered most of the time and, if you add the battle to pay mortgages, feed and clothe children and the myriad quotidian drain on resources we encountered you wouldn't want to describe it as a prime.  Not by any stretch of the imagination.  In fact I can remember dreaming of some later time when I would be comfortably off and still have my faculties in tact, a time when I would be in my prime. And then you get on with life and before you know it that elusive, mercurial, whimsical 'prime' has passed.   Bugger! Recently I have been re-acquainting myself with old tapes I (with others) recorded about twenty years ago.  In the midst of much weird stuff, straight stuff and shockingly poor stuff were many ditties that had completely slipped my mind.  Imagine my feeling of synchronicity when I came across a demo for a track that looks back on my prime!  My prime at that time I took to be when I was 18 and the lyrics reflect a wry piss take of the fashions and music of the time as well as a yearning for times past. Funny isn't it, but now I'm looking at twenty years ago, when I would have been in my late 30s recording this demo and considering the possibility that too was a 'prime'.  Certainly compared to the way I feel nowadays.  All I seem to experience is a loss of faculties and general decay.   Mind you, in about 20 years, if I'm still here, I'll look back at 2011 and think "I was still in my prime back then" Anyway, here it is: 'A Long Time Ago Demo'.  Just me and Bella my Fylde acoustic.

 A Long Time Ago Demo by Occupied Country

Some pics:-

The Manchester Day parade

The Manchester Day parade...the Gallaghers apparently

View from Cloud 23 bar on the 23rd of the Beetham Tower

View from Cloud 23 bar on the 23rd of the Beetham Tower looking north across the GMEX roof

View from Cloud 23 bar on the 23rd of the Beetham Tower looking North towards the town hall and library

View from Cloud 23 bar on the 23rd of the Beetham Tower town hall and library

Tram stop

The Hulme arch - symbol of regeneration

City of Manchester stadium

City of Manchester stadium with the moors behind

Cloud 23 seating

John Ryland's magnificent library with added street furniture