The next night we go to see your man Del Brogan sing at a church hall, in Donegal, and they have a comedian as the warm-up act, who was quite good, actually, all except for some stupid joke about dead babies. I take a look around the audience. Your man Del Brogan is doing well with the middle-aged women, there’s some crackers in here, no debate. We go outside for a smoke at the intermission and Jimmy The Grunt’s out there selling the merchandise. Fuck me, Barney says, some sales patter they’re gonna get from this cunt. Alright, Jimmy, I says to him, and he gives me a grunt. How are sales going? I says to him. He grunts and he nods. Going well, eh? I says. Another grunt; this guy’s fucking chronic. The whole time he’s got a cigarette stuck between his lips and the ash is falling all over the records. None of Tommy’s class whatsoever. He would have sold the lot by now.

Your man Del Brogan comes onstage, starts off with an Elton John number, ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’. It’s not on the album. Tommy would have advised him against it. Then he’s into the Rod Stewart tunes. Barney starts with the booing. Cut it out, Wee Robin says to him, you’re ruining it for everybody else. Give us some Como, Barney shouts, and you can see that your man Del Brogan has spotted us in the audience. We’ve got a few old-timers in here the night, your man Del Brogan says, so as we’ll take a trip down memory lane for the pensioners; cheeky bastard. Then he sings ‘Make Love to Life’, the song that Tommy sang to us from heaven. And now I’m starting to feel a bit funny. Now I’m starting to see the snake.

There’s a noise like a slithering noise and a noise like the noise of tearing flesh. I look around myself but nobody else is reacting. There’s a movement from the back of the stage. A black shadow, rising up. I’m watching this great fucking snake come in, slithering from behind the stage, and raising itself up. Now the fucking thing is crawling up your man Del Brogan’s back and hanging its hooded face down over his head. Barney, I says to him, is it just me, or is your man Del Brogan wearing a giant fucking snake? He’s a fucking snake bastard, Barney says. I’ll tell you that much.

He wears the snake as miracle.