When I was stuck on a coach for three-and-a-half hours yesterday thanks to an accident on the Westway. I was on my way to the launch of Virgin 1 at Richard Branson's house in Kidlington, Oxon. While going mad in the slow-moving traffic, having read Shortlist from cover to cover (thank God for it), I noticed some interesting graffitti.
Someone had scrawled the name of the band Scarlet Fantastic. Not unusual in itself, but this must have been done almost 20 years ago. and it's still there!
Do you remember their song No Memory? A minor Top 20 hit for this electro pop band with the woman with operatic vocals. It should have been a huge hit, but it wasn't. I bought it. Am I right in thinking 1987? There are often graffitti campaigns for bands in London, and I do remember seeing this one on more than one occasion back when I lived near the Westway in the late Eighties.
But to see it still there made me smile. I bet 99% of people passing by wonder what on earth that means. Shame they never made it.
As the launch was a damp squib, an utter disaster and a bore, seeing that was the highlight of my day.
