Horace and the Dukes

Wivesfield

This song was inspired by groups of people gathering in pubs and the main topic of conversation being about ‘the old days’. I wanted to capture a few little stories in a song. The date was around 1990, England were playing a pretty big football match and The Rolling Stones were playing a gig at Wembley Stadium. The four of ‘us’ - Nik, Nick, Paul and I - were going to said gig. Badly timed it must be said as the band were more interested in the football really. Anyway we stopped on the way to London from the south coast and we found ourselves in Wivesfield. There were willow trees and it was raining. This site is likely to be houses now and I'm not even sure there ever was a place called Wivesfield Green. What happened here on this day back in 1990, has been the subject of some speculation, but the reality is that it was just 4 boys getting foolishly wet. The drama of the day unfolded later, when we missed the last train back to Hastings and ended up on the ‘Gatwick Express’ and needed to spend the evening sleeping at the airport. We needed to avoid police attention - our only crime being there. 

I must say at this point that a popular comedy sketch show at the time was ‘The Mary Whitehouse Experience’. Hugh Dennis and Steve Punt would sometimes refer to an imaginary police officer called ‘PC Jenkins’ in their stand up bits. This reference in the song is what this is. I have later changed this lyric due to the fact that it sounded a bit ‘Etonian public schoolboy’ to ‘…give Jenkins the slip…’. Really I am just referring to avoiding the police at the airport. Beer and bench on the ground seemed slightly more relatable.

Other references in the song - our barge on the River Thames, gigs, money made and spent, the guy who insisted that I got a wah wah pedal. All true stories about the old days! The squirrel and a coffee sign were allegedly taken as trophies by people outside of the bands immediate circle but ended up in that back room or in the case of the concrete squirrel as part of the hardcore for a back drive into our rehearsal space.