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You have to pay attention to signs. They tell you what’s going to happen next.
I interviewed a guy last week who saw a load of ghosts when he was younger. I love hearing stuff like this from guys in bands. You’ll never catch a guy in an indie band saying, "Yeah, I was basically visited by dead people from the other side between the age of eight and 13." They’d sooner say, "Blah blah blah blah blah Big Star blah blah blah blah blah if anyone else likes it it’s a bonus blah blah blah blah blah blah blah real music and craftsmanship blah blah blah blah blah blah blah winkle pickers and a cravat." If it was up to me I’d force all indie guys to do interviews in the cross hairs of a telescopic sight and then shoot them through the fucking eye socket with a pressurised gas whaling harpoon the second they said anything boring.
So anyway this dude (his name is Mat, and he’s in an amazing psychedelic folk, black metal, prog group called Hexvessel – you should check them out; they’re like the absolute opposite of Chew Lips) told me he was basically haunted when he was younger. A dead woman who lived in the house before his family moved in, came into the room to speak to him every time his mother was wearing a specific dress. I think that fatherhood has brought out the really soft, understanding and sentimental side in me, so I asked him if he found that actually the ghost was just misunderstood, maybe the woman was simply lonely and confused and just wanted a friend. I asked him if the experience actually wasn’t that frightening once he got used to it.
Mat looked at me like I was a simpleton and said: “No… it was fucking terrifying. I was three and she was the ghost of a dead woman who came out of my wardrobe.”
I guess there’s something to be said for correct interpretation of signs and omens as well as simply spotting them to be honest. So maybe I can read London like a book but it’s a more of a case of it being like one of those ones that you don’t really understand like Finnegan’s Wake or The Naked Lunch.Previously: Menk, by John Doran - Lord I Have a Broken HeartYou can read all the previous editions of John's Menk column here.