Chocolate Girl by Deacon Blue came on this morning.
I've not heard it for ages, but I really used to love that song. Not quite sure what it's all meant to be about. Some old perv? Someone with OCD? A girl who's actually made of chocolate?
When I heard it I was instantly transported back to 1988, a carefree year in which I had a job in a large London shop and loved every minute of it. Everyone was about the same age, fresh out of university and not knowing what to do with their lives so just up for fun. It was endless parties and nights out drinking. That sounds like a nightmare to me now, but at the time it was fantastic. We had very little money but we was 'appy.
I'd lived in London a year before this, doing various jobs and having periods of unemployment, moving flat several times and it had all been rather grim. I'd made up my mind to leave if things didn't get better. But in the spring they did when I got this shop job. As the year went on I finally settled and began to enjoy it for what it was.
It was a very different place to what it is today, of course. Soho was still largely ungentrified. Buildings were still covered in black soot. There were actual record shops. The gastropub was yet to be invented and most pubs were scuzzy and old mannish with great jukeboxes. Carnaby Street still had that psychedelic lino paving! Oh, those salad days.
Anyhoo, there are certain songs that remind me of that year: The King Of Rock & Roll by Prefab Sprout, Somewhere In My Heart by Aztec Camera, Need You Tonight by INXS and Chocolate Girl. Deacon Blue have never really been rehabilited and remain the Eighties band we love to hate. Shame really, but the lead singer was a grade A knob and they veered towards pretention and taking themselves too seriously, so I can see the point. But they did do some great singles.
Here's my other favourite, Twist & Shout, which reminds me of a barge holiday in 1991, but I won't bore you with that one.
