Snow is two things, a sign that it is cold and also rather pretty to behold. Behind the door to the right of me in the above photo are boxes and boxes of my stuff still unpacked since I moved over here in April. My room is nearing completion and then all these boxes will be moved upstairs to safety and warmth. In the meantime I’m living in a small fraction of my wardrobe and by chance that includes the above jumper, my favourite and dearly prized ‘pully’. Many moons ago I worked for Alternative Tentacles, Jello Biafra’s record label in their London office. That was where I became friends with office manager Bridget. Besides sheltering me from the bosses wrath when I fucked up, teaching me how to wrap boxes properly and giving me an excuse to take the company car to gigs outside of London I couldn’t have otherwise easily got to.. …… she also knitted me this incredible jumper. A friend indeed! It makes me feel very sad and unworthy that I have failed to keep in touch with her over the last decade. I bought her a compilation of the Farside cartoons that I remember she never failed to find most amusing, even the ones I didn’t “get”. It sat on my shelves for years as I kept putting off making a visit to Mile End where Bridget lives, just down the road from where Emma was killed but that’s another story and no excuse not to visit her. I have promised myself that I will make amends next time I am back in the U.K.
i tried knitting once and failed miserably but it made me even more aware of what a fine job my Ruts jumper is. The Ruts endure in my life like a teenage best friend who becomes a cop. I still love them for what they were rather than what they became. I saw the Ruts DC play a couple of years ago and about 25 years after I should have seen them play at a festival in Nuneaton that got cancelled at the last minute. I wish I hadn’t. It was a sad affair and ruined my dreams of a gig I never saw and never will. Still if I put The Crack on my turntable, or more likely when it comes up on my iTunes, all is forgiven, my foot taps, my fists clench and I ‘ll try and sing along once more, for the zillionth time! Look carefully at the photo and you will see my Ruts road sign. That was swiped from roadworks in Leicester back in the early 1980,s and redesigned. It has followed me around ever since, Swansea, Hackney squats, tower blocks and now Donji Budaćki. I can’t decide wether or not to display it outside as a roadsign guaranteed to confuse the locals or in my future room but it will stay with me like the band till my end.
My Ruts jumper used to only come out on special occasions but at the moment it is the only warm “woolly” I have not packed away protecting my mugs (that is another story). So like the snow my jumper is two things, an indicator that it’s cold outside and a creation that’s rather wonderful to look at.
Thank you Bridget x