Led and Eddie

Eddie pissed me off.

He decided to take a poll,

as he wanted the rest of the class to endorse him as the best artist.

That was ok even though they said he was it didn’t bother me much,

until he started to goad me.

It wasn’t so much that he called me “lead head”

more the fact that others jumped onto his band wagon

and mocked me also…

I had had enough,

there was only one course of action left for me take to restore my honour

so I challenged him to a fight

and we arranged to meet at Fords fields immediately after school.

We agreed it would be decided by two falls two submissions or a knockout.

Much to my surprise I was the victor

and put my good fortune down to the fact that I’d spent

my Saturday afternoons watching wrestling on the tele.

He often reminds me of that day whenever we meet

and still it brings a smile to my face.

I was stuck with Lead Head for a while

but over the course of time it got shortened to Lead, which was not so bad.

I met Eddie again a year or so after we had left school

he was wearing a fifty guinea suit he’d bought on the knock

from Alexander’s where he worked selling made to measure suits;

hair back combed but neat, he told me he was on the lookout for school tit.

I liked Eddie though I was wary of him,

as he had turned lying into an art form.

His little in exactitudes he would call them.

He managed to talk me into buying him a coffee on the pretext of

introducing me to this great new band he had discovered.

He took me to the record department of Burgess and Colbourne's

as he wanted me to see the “tasty piece” that worked behind the record counter. With a Redfordesque grin he told me he would have her pants

by the end of the week and he more than likely did.

Eddie would often brag about his conquests

and he still does today; probably the only times I could guarantee

he was being truthful.

We dropped down into the basement to the record department

and with the aid of his undoubted charm persuaded the assistant

to play a track from an LP.

He said it would blow my mind and he wasn’t wrong about that.

I went into the booth while Eddie attempted to talk his way

into the assistant’s pants

and I was greeted with a sound that would stay with me up to this day…

“How many more times…”

boomed across the store.

It freaked me out

I had never heard music of its like it before…

…and being a “Led head" had suddenly become very cool.