It's funny, this whole pop music/adolescence thing. Obviously there's a world of difference between 'growing up' and 'growing old', and to some extent between 'childish' and 'childlike'. I'll accept growing up, I'll accept having to work, pay bills, keeping the house OK, the whole package of adulthood. What I'll refuse to accept until the day I die, is this idea of certain things being out of bounds once you're 25. Things you're supposed to do - buying state-of-the-art hi-fi, when you only have Chris de Burgh records. I'm not on a trail to recapture my lost youth, I'm still living it, every week brings a whole bunch of new records to hear, to buy, to drown myself in and I don't think that feeling will ever go away. It's the whole death of enthusiasm, I simply can't accept. I don't feel 16, I don't feel 46. I just feel alive. Three little anecdotes leap to mind: 1 My father read 'Catcher in the Rye' when he was 48. He loved it. 2 Talking to my cousin from Perth (aged 18) at my sister's wedding and asking him what sort of music he liked. 'Aww, you won't have heard of them, they're called Belle and Sebastian'. When I said 'Oh I love them', he was astonished 'but you're 30, you should be listening to jazz'. 3 Working away for a week with an ex-Navy captain, going out for a beer with him and him talking about opera, an art form that leaves me cold, frankly, and being enraptured by this middle aged guy's enthusiasm for the music he loved. I don't know why I mention these things, they just seemed relevant. I'm off to see the Pastels, cheerio Love Tag xxx PS And for those who you don't see the link between football and Belle and Sebastian, someone I know, a devoted Port Vale fan, got, for his birthday, a photo of Vale scoring, with the lyrics to 'Like Dylan and the Movies' emblazoned over the top. 'You're worth the trouble and you're worth the pain...I will love you over'. And even though they beat us last week, it is still a beautiful and heartfelt thing.... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister@majordomo.net . We're all happy bunnies humming happy bunny tunes. Aren't we? -----------------------------------------------------------------------