The Battle of the Bands is finally under way in the penultimate (last but one) episode of the chapter. The episode contains lots of surprises, song references and innovative writing, and I think really deserves the accolade of classic modern literature (that’s serious, not self-parody comedy).
Remembering the Groomed Children
Like much of this chapter, the background theme is one of bullying, grooming and harassment, which was headline news in the U.K. at the time. I was ironically also experiencing it at work, never having thought I’d be able to know how the children groomed on an apparently industrial scale felt.
On this Remembrance Sunday I remember the brave service people who have given their lives for this country. However, the people who take part in the kind of practises above, with accusations of high-ranking people loud and clear, make a mockery of the claim that the wars were fought for freedom, fairness and decency.
I went to the Remembrance Sunday service last year. This year I also remember all the children who’ve lost their childhood, minds and lives to the groomers operating on Blighty. The liberal elite would like to forget them, as they ignored them when it was happening, preferring to consider all the lower classes simply ignorant and racist!
While some may consider the inclusion of Faster Pussycat bad taste, in fact, they represent the kind of freedoms the wars fought against fascism were supposed to be defending, epitomised by the attacks on the Bataclan Theatre in Paris last year, targeting those enjoying rock music.
Chapter 4 Episode 23
I was lost for words, because I’d literally lost my words. Moreover, they’d been taken by my travel quest target, the one who now calls himself XaW, my head honcho of greenYgrey creation ex-Andy Wolfhol. A smile once dominated by canine teeth was now all about incisors. As I thought of the above I suddenly saw them moving towards me… closer… and closer… until I could smell his bloody breath… whispering the New York Dolls song Looking for a Kiss.
Riga Diva Diver
I was entranced, feeling unable to move, just waiting for the vampire’s teeth to sink in. In fact, at that moment, I was looking forward to it. Feeling tired after all the rambling, and having found my travel quest, albeit in totally the wrong circumstances, I was ready to let go; ready to give up the rest of the XaW Files chapters parody rambling, ready to give up the greenYgrey world, and live the rest of my existence as a XaW world Transylvania vampire.
Then I heard some satirical comedy pull me out of my slumber, before seeing a stylish hand push Wolfhol’s face and teeth away.
Escaping my trance, I looked to my left and saw it was none other than Stella Lagerwolf-Bruno, who I’d last seen in Riga, Latvia at the Hollow Scene Holocene club where she’d stayed (way back at the end of Chapter 2, posted about two years ago).
Love Works
I was just about to help Stella out, when I heard a song I thought I recognised… and then did: it was Whitesnake’s Love Ain’t No Stranger.
Remembering the song title made me listen and look closer, until I realised it was Love the mixed-up Vole singing. I thought it must be singing in one of the two bands on before the New York Dolhascas. Then I remembered one of them was called Mysterious Ways, and putting one and two together, thought it must be a case of Love working in Mysterious Ways.
Stella and Love’s appearances seemed to turn the tables in my favour, and the XaW backed off, before slinking away into the shadows.
Mysterious Ways of Women
Mysterious Ways played a storming set, and I caught up with Stella during it. She said the Hollow Scene was doing well, as was Riga and Latvia. She’d been in Bucharest for a fashion show, and had only come to The Oldies for old time’s sake.
I was expecting the New York Dolhascas up next, and waited with bated breath to see what the opposition was like now. I wondered if they had improved with the additions of Mary and Jack, and if there was any way of getting all the greenYgreyers back.
Love joined us, and we all said it was great to see it safe and sound. We asked where it had been since Dolhasca.
It just shrugged, and combining a couple of phrases, said ‘Love always finds an away were, because where there’s a were there’s a way!’
Available to buy or borrow on Amazon and some great big bookshops.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/XaW-Files-Beyond-Humanity-Fantasy/dp/1516969065/
greenygrey3 