01:15 a.m. - 2024-01-27
Brothers In Arms

Last night's Jam Social was a classic night of making good music amongst good friends. Jason and Ian didn't get an invite and the difference that made was remarkable. Myself, Uncle Ross, John and Jamie were all looking forward to a productive night and we invited a new guest guitar player, Mick the Joiner, along to jam with us.

Mick was quite a serious chap, not big on banter or cheery stories and he told us all at one point he played in a band where his wife was the singer. She made a mistake with a song one night and he fell out with her in the middle of a show, unstrapped his guitar and threw it at her head. Now then, late seventies Anniversary model Fender Strat's were fairly hefty guitars. If it had hit her, it would probably have killed her. The guitar clipped her on the way past lightly but it was enough for her to decide to divorce him. That was the only story he told us during his stay.

He was a very good guitar player and in the style of Mark Knopfler. We recorded six tunes, all our originals and there was a bit of first jam magic happened. The Dire Straits guitar tones were very evident and they gave our songs a bit of a facelift in a good way. I was so impressed, I dug out Brothers in Arms to listen to when I got home.

I haven't listened to that album for years. It was one of my first wife's favourite albums and also a big favourite of a girl I used to date back in my late teens. Everyone was into Dire Straits back then. My Dire Straits loving girlfriend used to sneak me into her room in the Glasgow nurses home so we could spend the night together. I had to climb up a drainpipe and run over a flat roof to the nurses accommodation block then remember the correct window to tap so she could open it and let me in.

On one occasion I knocked on the wrong window. A girl drew back the curtains wearing not much more than a smile. She opened the window in the dark and realising what I'd done, I apologised sincerely but she said it was ok. It was freezing and I was shivering with the cold at the time when she said to me "do you want to come in and get warmed up? you look so very cold." Her name was Aileen, she was beautiful, my first blonde, and we made an instant connection with each other. We were just two young people both open to taking a chance with a stranger, and both looking for someone to hold on to for a night and chase away the longing we all started to feel as young adults to be part of something bigger than ourselves.

I stayed with her and left at dawn the next morning. She had a mix tape playing quietly in her room and the song I always remember was the title track Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits. She was lying in my arms as that song played in the wee small hours. I stayed wide awake that whole evening talking with her and I remember thinking to myself that this was a rare moment of circumstance and chance in my youth that might never come again. I never saw her after that night, but I knew I would always remember her whenever I heard "Brothers In Arms". My girlfriend at the time was none the wiser and maybe I was also none the wiser for what had happened. Back then my only plan in life was to fall in love with every girl I met. It was as good a plan as any to have when I was still a teenager and life seemed full of endless possibilities. Every chance encounter could have been the one that changed my life forever or at the very least left me with a memory of someone I’d never forget.