hard to

2001 was a bad year

I was bittersweet 16 then and I was going through the horror of the best years of my life. I was lucky that I had avoided the pitfalls of the teenage years- never got acne, my voice didnt go all squeaky when it was breaking, I washed enough not to be the smelly kid and the strangers in my area only offered me Mars bars and seeing as I was more a snickers kind of guy I avoided the molestation.

But then again it wasnt all great as no kids life is.

I had a nickname at the time; people at school called me "Irish" because I was the only irish person in the school (I know not the smartest year) and growing up in a pig-ignorant part of the London statelite towns wasnt great with a broad Northern Irish accent during the 90s I can tell ya.

When I was ten, I moved to England and the first two things that were said to me on the first day at school in the playground were "You are Irish? you must be stupid!!" and then another kid said "you are Irish? dont blow me up!!!!" and then the little shit ran off to the teacher and told her I threatened to blow him up so I got detention.

I remember thinking to myself then that one day I would laugh about this or it could be the catalyst for a serious drinking problem, whichever didnt matter because karma translates that this kid would get his comeuppance one day.

I facebooked the guy who told on me last week hoping to find a facebook status that read something like "john is homeless now" or "john went to the sex clinic and got some bad news" or "john is up for nomination this week in the big brother house".

However, what I got was "John went to Cambridge University and is now a lawyer living with a beautiful model girlfriend in a loft apartment in Chancery Lane London with a holiday home in Greece, well tailored suit, good looks, well conditioned hair, trust fund just kicked in last year and a recreational cocaine habit." Ouch- a lot of sips of whisky could not get the sour taste out of my mouth that night.

Yeah well, he will always be a little shit to me...........................and I am resolved to kick him in the balls if I ever see him again so panic over.

Anyway, back to what I was saying I was 16

I hadnt discovered girls yet or more I had but they certainly had not discovered me. Metaphorically I was America in Biblical times. At least now I am Uzbekistan, everyone knows where it is but nobody wants to go there.

My only place of refuge, like so many others, was my room were I was whatever I wanted to be.

I listened to music continiously there it was heaven but unfortunately it was 2001 and all the music was awful. Britpop was dead and overrated anyway, everyone in school wanted to be a DJ and had decks, garage music and fucking craig david was huge and Nu-metal was seen as the future of music forever with Fred Durst seemingly the new Frank Black.

I had lost my faith in music and had retreated to only listening to John Peel on the radio and wondering what on earth he was talking about half of the time and the other half wondering why he was playing a swedish band who only used kettles as instruments.

I love John Peel and always will but jesus he played some weird shit. I had almost given up on being a music fan altogether and was in the process of looking through a decks magazine one night in my room when suddenly the Strokes came on.

The song was Hard to Explain and, whilst now every third teenage with long hair thinks they are in a band like the strokes, at the time they were bizarre and it was a revelation to me.

I instantly fell in love with the band and it ignited my love of music that has lasted ever since. It was amazing to me at the time after years of Limp Bizcuit or Korn that I could never relate to or cheesy dance songs from europe that finally there was a band that I could understand and spoke to me.

Suddenly there were bands like this everywhere and luckily  I got the chance the same year to see the Strokes a few times in the astoria and later at Leeds University (with a very early days Libertines in support which is probably still the best gig I ever went to)

The Strokes might mean nothing to you, they certainly mean nothing to most people I meet.

I once told some guy at a party that I liked them and the conversation went like this:

"I really like the strokes"
"The strokes, they are shit, I hate them"
"I disagree I like there sound a lot and so many have copied it"
"you are wrong, you have terrible taste in music, do you know what you get when you look up stupid in the dictionary?"
"um.....a picture of me?"
"no, the definition of stupid which you are."

That was a great line I thought, especially as some girls laughed at me too which gave the guy an in to proceed to chat them up and get their numbers. It was good until I watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang starring Robert Downey Jnr and realised that he just stole it from the movie.....just another guy to add to the "kick him in the balls" list.

But the Strokes meant a lot to me, made me seek out new music like them which got me into a million other bands I love, gave me a million bad fashion stories as I tried to dress cool, made me buy a guitar and fail miserably at learning to play it and got me to go to more gigs where I was infinately better at meeting girls than clubs with garage music playing.

I truely believe after a tough day at work or something there is nothing better than coming home putting on your favourites albums and drinking some cheap whisky.

I dont want you to all to suddenly love the Strokes that would be silly but do yourself a favour and put on your favourite album from when you were growing up (especially one that has lots of memories or you have not heard it in a while) and I promise you you will feel great.

bdayboy