AN ODE TO LOST FRIENDS

"Jim is my buddy my pal, he is my brother. I am one, he is the other".

When I say "lost" friends, I don't mean people who have died, just great friends that I once had that I have no idea where they went!

My friend Jim, Jim Taylor, James Taylor if you will - stuck by my side for a great time and then one day...vanished. I saw him once or twice but he was a different person, strange.

It was a time known as the late 90s, I was at college and I was playing in a 3-bit punk band called Yellowskin. Jim lived in the town next door and was your regular "rocker kid"...but he did have a van! So we became friends quite quickly and he became our driver. When the band broke up and all moved away just he and I remained.

He started moving from rock to punk, following what I did and starting to really get into all my late-90s punk politics too. Which was great because I had a friend, a partner! For a while we did everything together, he got dreads like me and when we went to clubs I would go in first and show my student ID, then back hand it to him and he would use the same one.

He even got me a cash-in-hand job de-shoeing and re-shoeing brake pads for trucks where he worked.

At my college and via a LAGWAGON gig in Newport I met another guy who we became friends with - American Dave. Who was (you guessed it) from America, although he was born in Surrey and his real name was Joseph. Anyway...ah, happy times.

Taking American Dave down to Southampton in the van, stopping at each service station to dye his hair in the toilets (first one to wash, second to bleach, next to wash off the bleach, next to put the blue dye on, next to wash it clean) - getting drunk and then him showing us "how it's done" in a night club. Which has hoping over the back of a sofa into a girl's lap, chating her up and then puking on her. Man, punk rock!

Trying to get into a NOFX gig in London using a friend's name that used to roadie for them and failing, then buying tickets for £80 a pop from a scalper.

In the end he decided to go to college, get educated like I was trying to do (I failed, I'm still trying now..). Miss ya Jim!

Elk out.