{"id":1336,"date":"2022-09-05T18:47:09","date_gmt":"2022-09-05T18:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1336"},"modified":"2022-09-05T21:04:57","modified_gmt":"2022-09-05T21:04:57","slug":"love-me-do-until-the-end-in-another-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/love-me-do-until-the-end-in-another-universe\/1336\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Me Do until The End: In Another Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Phil tugged at his beard and grinned at Jim, who sat to his right cradling his Epiphone. \u201cYou know, I think I ought to stand up for this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStand up, stand up for Jebsus,\u201d warbled Jim, \u201cyou do what\u2019s right, Phil. Just make it good. INTRODUCING mister Phil McSnorty on the vocal banjo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s a vocal banjo, Jim?\u201d Greg – dark eyes and darker demeanour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a Jew\u2019s Harp, only with very little harp and not much Jew.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay, are we rolling, Graham?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graham Jimson gave a thumbs up from the control booth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne, two, three, four.\u201d Phil said, and the well-oiled machine played as they always played.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd in the end,\u201d Phil sang, \u201cthe love you take is equal to the love you make.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg played his guitar break and the pre-recorded plagal cadence in F over C rang out, punctuating the air like a thunderclap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there was silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAre we done?\u201d Greg said, packing away his Telecaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re done,\u201d said Graham, with another thumbs up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGood, because I\u2019ve got to go shopping with Alice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll call you later, Greg,\u201d Jim shouted after the disappearing figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harry packed his sticks into the box next to his snare. \u201cAre we going out later? I fancy seeing a band and having a few bevvies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCall me,\u201d replied Jim, and Harry waved a fond farewell to Jim and Phil, who stood facing each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo,\u201d said Phil, his eyes red-rimmed. \u201cThis is it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, I guess so, Phyllis,\u201d Jim replied. He too, was tearing up. \u201cIt is this. It is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been great,\u201d Phil said. \u201cYou know, the last eight years especially. We\u2019ve come a long way since \u2018Love me do\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has been that,\u201d Jim said in a mock old man\u2019s voice. \u201cAs you say, a long and winding road.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVery long.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd very winding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo you think we\u2019ll do it again someday?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomeday over the rainbow, where skies are blue,\u201d Jim sang, his voice cracking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCome here, Longshanks,\u201d Phil held his arms out. Jim put down his guitar and walked over to embrace him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love you, man,\u201d Jim said, \u201cbut this, brother, is the end. We\u2019ve sailed this boat as far up the Khyber as we can get it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHave a good life, Jim,\u201d Phil said, wiping his eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou too, man.\u201d Jim walked to the studio exit, stopped, and looked back. Phil stood with his head hanging, tears running down his face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSee you around, Phyllis,\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phil didn\u2019t look up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epilogue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim Longshanks died from gunshot wounds in 1980, just eleven years after the BlueBoys broke up. Sir Harry Stickler married Mary-Lynn Mozart in 1981. Sir Phil McNaughtie\u2019s wife, Lucille Kindack, died in 1998. And three years later Greg Humble died from a brain tumour metastasising from lung cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BlueBoys never recorded as a foursome again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The End<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phil tugged at his beard and grinned at Jim, who sat to his right cradling his Epiphone. \u201cYou know, I think I ought to stand up for this.\u201d \u201cStand up, stand up for Jebsus,\u201d warbled Jim, \u201cyou do what\u2019s right, Phil. Just make it good. INTRODUCING mister Phil McSnorty on the vocal banjo.\u201d \u201cWhat\u2019s a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[597,667],"tags":[669,583],"class_list":["post-1336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-597","category-sept-2022-the-end","tag-the-blueboys","tag-the-end"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-ly","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1336"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1341,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions\/1341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}