Insert Wayne Kerr intro here:
If there's one thing worse than
that bloody busker playing on the train, it would
probably have to be an entire teenage grunge band playing on the train.
Some genius at Connex had the idea that live bands would attract more
customers, and so they recruited a bunch of teenagers who could
almost
play Smells Like Teen Spirit (they got through the intro before fumbling and
going onto another song). Their drum kit and amplifiers were set up in the
aisle; being a Friday afternoon, this made the rest of the carriage
considerably more cramped; and never mind the oldies like myself who
aren't into three-chord yoof-rawk.
The most amusing thing was the gaggle of teenage girls standing in the
aisle, watching the band and carrying on. Obviously they were not groupies,
but were pretending to be groupies, and having a lot of fun doing so.
Oh, the hypermediated postmodernism of it all...
Speaking of that bloody busker, btw, he was on the train again this evening,
and since there was only one carriage open, there was no chance of escape.
Maybe next time he asks for requests I'll ask him to play something likely
to be outside of his repertoire; at the moment it's a tie between Anarchy
in the UK and I Should Be So Lucky.