THU OCT 30

Nat wants to make a record. He attempted to do such a thing a couple of years ago, but the results had displeased him and he had abandoned the project. This time he is determined to see it through and despite his penchant for being impecunious (or because of it), he has saved just enough money to afford a few hours of recording in a cheap studio. Nat will bear the brunt of the studio fees, or at least Her Majesty’s Government will, for Greg spends all of his pocket money on collecting the records other people have put out. Jim considers it an honour for the band to have acquired his services at all, but nevertheless he will be contributing a little cash. Of course I can only go by what Nat tells me, and I think he exaggerates the mercenary tendencies of his partners at times.

SAT NOV 8

Nat’s band have been shamelessly exploited by a local recording studio. The tape that they ended up with was nothing like they had envisaged. Nat is more despondent than ever, but only with regard to the band. Curiously, he felt only a “mild twinge” of suicidal despair; his subsequent depression was no more acute than that which anyone else would suffer under similar circumstances. Some setbacks seem to spur him on, whilst others crush him entirely. Fortunately, I think that this disappointment falls into the former category.

MON NOV 24

Nat still fears the dark, but his phobia is now well under control. He no longer feels as if he is going to die when walking past Oval Wood, or going under the bridge at night when returning home from Greg’s. He even confessed that, prior to my teaching him fear management, he would often avoid the “scary route” home and make a round trip of some six miles instead. Small wonder he became so healthy looking.

Nat and Greg continue working out new songs and practicing their initial efforts with Jim once a week or fortnight. There is some dissension within the band as to just how well-polished their pieces should become. They do not feel that they are being true to their punk ideals on one hand, but on the other none of them are keen on playing live concerts which, I

am given to understand are the natural habitat of the punk band. However, they are not, they claim, a punk band as such, and they are more than a little apprehensive as to what real punks will make of them. Jim thinks that they should just make records and not disappoint the preconceptions of those that purchase those records. Nat and Greg feel that this would be dishonest.

I enquired as to why they couldn’t dress up for the evening of a concert. Nat denounced this as the worst possible course of action that they could take. Then I said they should stop staring at their navels and get on with it. Nat’s only reply was: “Touché!”