BEATS OF LOVE
99. The Love Revolution (Justin Robertson's Scream Team Remix) by Yargo
MY PARENTS had an off-license in Middleton in the late seventies. I'd be about eight and playing footy around the back of a neighbouring chippy when 'woof,' I somehow skied the ball and smashed an upstairs window. I sort of froze with the undamaged ball in my hands whilst everyone else disappeared sharpish. And said that it was me that smashed their window, when the owners bolted towards me.
The bottom line was I owed them about thirty quid, and my parents suggested I knock on doors and offer my services. (A seemingly more innocent age.)
Whilst everyone else was playing out and enjoying their hols, I was digging up weeds for buttons. I even had the stupid idea of knocking on the local nunnery. Then spent a full morning being put to use gardening just to be given chocolate biscuits. Therein lay the problem. I hadn't pitched my services properly. I think in the end I handed my parents a tenner and the problem from that point on simply disappeared coz when I woke up next morning an envelope was beside the bed with thirty quid in.
A pleasant twist of fate; the people I’d worked for turned incredibly friendly, especially the nuns. My envelope even the bowled over the chippy owner. It was my first taste of respect, and I loved it.
Yet, abandoning my helpless eight-year-old self felt inevitable. Just as it was inevitable that this magnificent anthem would find me years later. Its message of solidarity and positivity altered my life's course, happily guiding me right back to that same child.
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