But I am Here to Help you with the Load

In December 1982, my friend and I went to the last night of a tour of Simple Minds at Tiffany's Ballroom in Glasgow. They played 2 nights in November, of which we attended one, and during the gig, we purchased tickets for the last night.

We were young, we were foolish, and we had all our lives ahead of us.

We both had left school at 17, and both been lucky enough to get "good" jobs. By good, I don't mean enthralling, and exciting. I mean regular and well paid. We worked Monday to Friday 9 - 5 and we partied every weekend until we were sick.

I remembered that this morning, as we all showered at my mum's house. Although mum has had her bathroom all fitted out beautifully since I lived there, my memory of the bathroom is the inordinate amount of time I would spend in there of a weekend, throwing up all the money I had earned.

As I said, we were young, we were foolish and we had all our lives ahead of us.

We lived life to enjoy ourselves. We laughed, and we chatted, and we danced, like no one was watching, all the time. Admittedly, I was more of the weird dancer, and I didn't care who looked.

That night, one sentence changed our friendship for ever. And our lives.