I used to play with lots of awful bands when I was 17
Who only listened to Oasis and NOFX
And though they were all terrible, we always let them headline
I tried to treat them all with respect
But each night I watched them do the same old banter, forced and scripted
And if I saw four more guys in t-shirts I was gonna scream

Then along came Adrianna
Who I thought was famous
Coz I'd seen her on Scuzz, heard her on Kerrang, and thought she'd made it
She had come from London which I thought was exotic
And she made the standard Vans and Converse look strangely erotic,
But what kind of scenario would mean a cool punk rock girl
Would ever want to hang around with me

And then we played together, or at least our bands did
I spent the weeks that led up to it lost in thought, blithely romantic
You helped me tune my guitar, sort my amp without pretension. I still need help with both: I didn’t pay attention
We played the best gig of our lives, like Ringo, fingers blistered
But you were outside, said “sorry, mate, I must have missed it...”

Adrianna, a hundred thousand times, you
Never even noticed as you smiled vacantly and drank Budweiser
You always played a Fender Jaguar you wore round your knees
And girls are hotter when they play guitar, at least if you ask me

And what would it take? What would it take?
What do you get? What would I get?

We used the acoustic guitars as firewood
Used the strings as trip wires for the pirates
And there’s not a ukulele on this island
At least on the surface
We gather in secret in shacks
Make our instruments out of household trash
Make percussion out of diamonds and cash
And things equally worthless
And without the John Lewis jingle
Or the Eva Cassidy Christmas single
The acoustic guitar finally again
Sounds subversive

This world is trash, it's just hairspray and refuse
Forced to the outskirts, just seeking refuge
The bombs fell and pushed the songs to the centre
People cling to them like wreckage from the life they remember

We pulled the scene from the spare rooms and basements
Pulled the generator into bars in the wastelands
This world has taken on a dark mutation
Slippery tentacles clap to the bass drum
Do they get it?
Do they even get it?
Do they have a take on Cassavettes?
("Alcoholic!" "Genius!" "Messiah!" "Misogynist!")

How do we get in? How do we get out?
What do we put in? What do we get out?

And what about us?
How do we play a part in this?
We are 'Dead Souls' book 2
Maybe I shouldn't have started this
I'm like Omega when you've kicked out of my finisher
I've started something and I don't know how to finish it
We're 'Smile'
We are the Canterbury Tales
How can I complete this?
I don't want to have a Stephen King ending
A flight without incident then crash out on the landing

How do we get in? How do we get out?
What do we put in? What do we get out?

I regret it
I regret being starstruck
In a town where the crowd and the sound and the bar sucked
I wish we’d met under different circumstances
I wish we’d had a different set of chances
I heard your songs and thought I wanted to be near you
In fact all I really wanted was to hear you
Play all those beautiful songs that you’ve written
And imagine there’s a scene where both you and I fit in

Adrianna
Your band is going nowhere
But when they open Jenx in 2028
I want to go there
A thousand things we could have done but which I never thought of
I thought of them too late, I wrote them down, that’s not important
I romanticised meeting those who I admired
Maybe we’d be different if the world was not on fire
Adrianna