apologies, glances and messed up chances

Tuesday 18th July 2006. Took the long, windy, boring and therefore dangerous A140 up to Norwich and UEA to see one of my favourite bands, the Lost Prophets, work their magic on a crowd of disorientated and sexually confused teenagers. Aside from the woeful air-conditioning it was a top night out. Ok, so I know they are not everyone’s cup of tea and most fans of punk rock would ridicule them for ‘selling out’ - or - if you happened to be so small minded as to believe in the ska/emo divide you may equally feel justified in despising them.

Yet the point is that I like them. So what if their most recent album is tainted with the play it safe and careful words of a record company’s PR department? So what that their lead singer is just a pretty boy? - capable of hitting wrong notes with a spectacular consistency. So what their fan base consists of stereotypically sceptical sixteen years olds? So what? They are Welsh. Give them some credit. I think they have survived their passage into mainstream creatively intact. For example their newest video shows some real ingenuity - perhaps the overbearing weight of expectation and record company fortunes is not the straightjacket it is made out to be.

Their work seems to switch between heavy, pop and punk styles mid track and their lyrics are respectably deep at times. They seem to infuse their songs with enough vaguely insightful statements that I am forever coming up with new interpretations to keep me happy and their track ‘Last Summer’ stands as one of my most favourite songs of all time. Their sounds bring back happy memories of music festivals, short-lived romances and best of all, my housemate Sera.

I feel I’m too old for this (n)emo rubbish about broken hearts and big dreams but it is only now that I seem to be truly hitting my stride with this stuff. My evolution as a person seems to be going in reverse. This should be sixth form stuff. Perhaps I am too afraid to let go, or am I making up for a misspent youth? Either way this summer’s highlights have all involved this style of music and the new friends I have met through it.

Perhaps it is a sign if intent. As we move away from this age of innocent hope and into the darker realms of wages, mortgages and suffocating relationships we should never forget how we used to be. How powerful we used to feel.

In the infinite wisdom of the Prophets themselves:

We’re growing up, we ain’t giving up.