An extract from the Paul Rance short story, The Surreal World of... Jimmy Coocumber
The line-up of Venusian Snowstorm
still needed to be arranged regarding who would play what. Everyone wanted to
play the electric guitar, but, though a novel concept, four guitars and no
bass, drums and keyboards would limit the scope of their sound. It was agreed
that everyone would take it in turns which instruments to play. Though much
practice would be required for Jimmy.
All four were good songwriters,
and the news was full of topical content. Hardly anyone read newspapers now,
but there were still some accurate sources of news by way of the written word.
There was a benefit concert for the extinct British monarchy at a fete in
Essex, they had read about, and they saw this as an opportunity to play their
first gig.
Though very unrehearsed, Venusian
Snowstorm were confident they’d go down well – though they hadn’t done their
research re what types would be attending. For now, they’d be playing covers.
They had always presumed that God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols was
a comedy record about punks hating the monarchy. The audience didn’t, however,
see it that way…
As the bottles came flying
towards the stage (from mature ladies who should have known better), Venusian
Snowstorm fled for their lives. While Simon and Sylvester proved that slugs and
snails were able to move quickly.
