Banjo and ukelele mayhem in The Golden Eagle ...

It takes ten minutes to reel from The Golden Eagle to Richard's house - 

As you do so, you pass the Jewish Cemetery, circled with barbed wire and sad trees - 

Urban foxes stare boldly into the headlights of Aquacars - fanlights glow above dark doorways - the starless sky hangs over late Victorian terraces - 

I sometimes wonder whether I'll wake up in Richard's hallway with a racing bike as my duvet - 

But last Friday we'd only been mildly carousing - 

Cliff greeted us with his wolfish smile - rest your ears inside he said - 

A five piece band was playing ferocious rock and roll - I recognized a cover of an XTC song - the speakers were infernal cabinets, twice the height of a man - 

My whole body throbbed with the notes of the bass guitar - the lean vocalist grasped his microphone with a feverish passion - 

Women danced around swaying boys - silver backs lifted their glasses of Seafarer - 

The calm youth behind the scarred bar was adept at lip reading - 

Then Cliff appeared, with a ukulele duct taped to his electric banjo - he insisted that the band cover The Ace of Spades -

The speakers lifted up from the floor - 

Richard later said that when Cliff gives out the results of the meat raffle, he sings The Leg of Lamb, the Leg of Lamb - 

23.55

September 13 2014 

The Golden Eagle

Southsea