Monday 20 April 2009

Passionate Embrace

I have been married 24 years. It doesn't seem possible , does it? I mean where did those years go? How did we get so old (We're both 48).When did I get so jaded, bitter and cynical? Well, maybe I have always been a bit jaded , bitter and cynical. At least that is what Mrs Cowhut says and she has known me for 30 years (this year).

Anyway lately , as is the way with old married couples, we have sort of drifted apart- not in a nasty way- just in a comfortable pipe and slippers type way. We don't share the same interests, or more accurately we don't pretend to anymore. We did both used to like more or less the same type of music.Nowadays I don't even know what she likes or even if she ever listens to music.She doesn't when we are both together and she definitely doesn't like my musical taste anymore.

Our last great shared musical passion was Embrace. Who? Yes them. We loved them at Newcastle Uni with all the students in the early days. We loved them , standing in pitch black night at Leeds Festival with rain pelting down and us getting soaked whilst they played The Good Will Out and we sang along. We missed them when they disappeared for three years and then rushed to see them 3 times on their Out of Nothing tour. We didn't even really mind that they needed a Chris Martin song to get mainstream attention, the song was good, like a renaissance.

We both had tears in our eyes when they played Newcastle City Hall and Danny's voice was in its best form ever. He came down into the audience that night and sang Glorious Day. It didn't get much better than that.That was the peak, the high point. It dipped after that.We didn't like the next album that much(This New Day), sort of resented the stadium tour (although we went) but mainly it dipped because Danny's voice (always fragile) was shot. Chris Moyles picked up on them and overdid it as he overdoes everything and that seemed to make it worse. Danny's honesty seemed contrived and showbiz. World at Your Feet was OK but it wasn't great Embrace. We still bought all formats though.
The last gig for us was at the Newcastle Academy. I ended up going on my own, my wife didn't care enough anymore.
It was a bit sad. Richard and Mickey had to sing along with Danny on all the songs. There were people there who obviously didn't know the early stuff- Fireworks or The Good Will Out. They'd stopped ending with that one anyway.
And now they're gone again. Will they return I don't know. A part of me still cares and wants them and that passion back.

Part of me knows that love affairs don't last a whole lifetime.

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