At the beginning, where it started, if you remember. If you were lucky enough to be there. Bottle smashed love story. Minor chord, one draft, plenty in common. Anyone saw. We sure did. More ideas than sense! and devotion. Early drafts, late-night chess, across the break of a pool table. An eagerness that shook you like a waiter with a runaway’s cheque. Dessert. He bought you, he left you half eaten, the night they played you Christmas Til Dawn on Louis’ acoustic. And nothing beats the way they flamenco on your heart strings with that one. With voices that flutter, they float down, they dig in with a casual affection that sticks in your mouth, tastes metallic, a predictable joke in the dead of night, hidden scene on your Favourite DVD. You bite like you bite on a lollipop. Tart, Sharp, Austere. Damn it all!  Prima as the surname, marriage, adoption! The Atomic family. Gimme some Détente, guard the Avant! They didn’t dare let you mess with the console, and they didn’t take the boots off for a second.

Basement, Bar, Backstage, Showroom. 

“What now, my love?” 

Now Ships, 

Now Opera,

Now Strings.

And the curtain rises on our Theatre Fortuna. Here, still, the bleedin’ guitars dance on an oil slick. Yet now the piano, lament viola, the lemon of the cello bay only to the command of four horsemen who dare follow an X with a Y- your boys take the scenic route to the magazine shoot. Dress rehearsals on the porch, open: sentimental fancy dress box. Swing inauguration, well-received heads of state. Lear jets touch down on the nightclub strip, Shift gear, Slide guitar as you turn on the lights in the one-bed-suite. Tonight, the kick-drum  feather pillow makes a good weapon, dragoon snares at the vanguard and rout the tempest in your teacup. It’s a strings EP but this is anything but a nostalgic retreat through the English countryside. This is Jude’s first appearance in Christminster. The self-fulfilled prophecy, your Father’s dress shoes fit just right. And Do Not Go Gentle into that Dumb Night. I’ve watched them work; I’ve watched them play. So, you better listen up, there’s more to this lot than big blue eyes, long fingers, loafers. You’ve got the answer, here, in your hands, you’ll just wish it were longer.