This Could Be Rock 'N' Roll Read Online Free PDF Page B

retreat.
    She turns on me, all 1,000 volts. “Jake, I love you so much.”
     
    *  *  *
     
    CrackTown have the wittiest album title I have seen in a while - ‘Songs In The Key Of Fuck Off!’ - and their gigs are riotous, especially around Christmas, so we head down to The Lamp in Norfolk Street where Chaos Theory is confirmed. There are photocopied Christmas trees everywhere for us to decorate at will, mince pies and crackers.
    Jade’s mum has insisted on coming along and the band is certainly doing something for booze sales. I think of my act and feel inadequate all over again.
    “Right guys, it’s time for a bit of tug-o’-war,” with a rubber chicken would you believe?
    “This is amazing,” Jade gasps and hugs me tight. “Do you want the good news, the even better news or the best news of all?”
    “No bad news?”
    “Jake, get on the bright side,” Jackie throws in.
    “OK. Give it to me.”
    “Jake, I love you.” She reaches up and gives me a huge kiss.
    “I love you too, petal.”
    “Jake, will you marry me?”
    Now that throws me. Jackie is watching me intently. There is no way to dance around this one.
    “Probably, darling.”
    “Jake, I’m pregnant.”
    Fucking hell.
    That’s when the Christmas ghost makes his appearance. These guys must know a lot.
    I have barely recovered my breath when Michelle Dee of ThisisUll, the local indie website, collars me. “Aren’t they amazing?” she says. “When are you going to do something like this?”
    “Not really my thing.”
    “Shame. We girls like a bit of fun,” and off she goes again.
    Yeah, I’ve heard. Michelle put on a bunch of gigs at The Adelphi for ThisisUll and in one of them they set fire to Carl Minns, the leader of Hull City Council, in effigy. CrackTown are not the only ones who can do riotous. I feel even older and under fire.
    I grab Jade. “Come on, doll, let’s celebrate.”
    She looks at me gratefully. “Are you really pleased?” Jackie is still scrutinising me.
    “Why would I not be?”
    The ghost has started pestering me and I am trying to fend it off to have a serious conversation.
    “Get into the spirit, my man,” it encourages me. “It’s celebration time.”
    Yeah, I suppose it is.
    Jackie puts her arm around me and leads me to the fringes of the crowd. “Jake,” she says, “if you let my baby down, you won’t have a G string left on your guitar, if you get my drift.”
    As a guitarist, it is hard to get through life without a G string. As a man it would be harder.
    “When did you find out all this?” I ask Jade.
    “A few days ago.”
    “And you kept it quiet?”
    “I didn’t know how you would react.”
    “I’m delighted, girl, I really am.”
    “You looked like you had seen a ghost.”
    “Well, there are implications, not least for Josh and Sam ….”
    “Oh come on. They are going to love a little brother or sister. I’ve wanted one of those all my life.”
    Funny. I never did.
     
    Too many ghosts here,
    Too many years,
    And too many memories,
    Too many tears,
    And too many ghosts here,
    Too many nights spent,
    Glued to a barstool,
    Drinking the weeks rent.
    Too many ghosts here,
    Caught in the corners,
    Shapes in the shadows,
    Starting to haunt us.
    Death ain’t no myth,
    And life ain’t no mystery,
    Stay a place too long,
    You drift into history.
    I know all the jokes,
    And I know all the stories,
    They’re time twisted tales,
    Of some desperate glories,
    It’s how much they’re making,
    And how much they’re betting,
    And how much they’re taking,
    And how much they’re getting.
    I don’t want to think,
    I just want to forget,
    But there’s too many ghosts here,
    Too many regrets.
    Too many ghosts here,
    Too many voices,
    Too many lives lost,
    In too many choices.
    Drawn through the door,
    On a promise of freedom,
    You sneer: “So you say Jake,
    There’s only you sees them.”
     
     

Chapter 6
     
    I loathe being an estate agent. Have I said that already? Sorry. I tend to get a