2012
– A YEAR TO REMEMBER
By now, everyone
knows that 2012 was the year when ‘impossible’ things happened.
For a start, The
Stone Roses famously said that the day they’d reform, would be the day Man City
won the Premier League… didn’t they…?
Well, here’s a less
well known, but equally inadvertent prophecy that follows a similar vein to
theirs… And just in the same way that The Stone Roses are bigger than even The
Beatles, this one is more serious even than… Football…!
Yes, believe it or
not, I actually said… in public… and on more than one occasion… “The day I
return to Manchester will be the day The Stone Roses reform…”
And just as
everyone laughed… everyone who’s a red, that is… at the thought of City winning
the Premier League, so everyone laughed at the thought of me returning to Manchester… Well, you know what I mean, some people giggled… a bit…
But we all know how
truth is stranger than fiction… don’t we?
And still the
laughter continued… and still the die-hard believers, not only continued to
survive, but also continued to believe…
And then…
2012 happened… And
believe it or not… City won the Premier League…! And the Stone Roses reformed…!
And I returned to
Manchester…?
Yes! Believe it…
it’s all true…!
And in Manchester, the
crowds lined the streets, and cheered City, and everyone said “Nice one… about
time…!”
And also in
Manchester, the crowds filled Heaton Park… three nights running…! And they
cheered The Stone Roses, and everyone said “Nice one… about time…!”
And also in
Manchester, the crowds filled the lobby in Terminal 1 at Manchester Airport…
and waited patiently for their planes to take them away on well-deserved
holidays… while I got off my plane… in Terminal 2… smoked the last of my Khrong
Thip cigarettes, and waited… impatiently… for the 105 bus… to Moss Side, in Manchester. And I cheered
when, at last, it arrived, and I alone said “Nice one… about… time…”
So… just to re-cap…
We all know that 2012 saw City win the Premier League… We all know that 2012 saw
The Stone Roses reform… thus fulfilling the prophecy that the two ‘impossible’
events would occur, (almost) simultaneously… And of course, now we all know
that 2012 saw me return to Manchester…
But hang on a sec…
did some of us forget something…?
On May 13, did
anyone actually do what I remembered to do…? (In the Claremont Pub, on
Claremont Road, Moss Side, Manchester 14) What I’d so vehemently and vocally
promised to do, for more than 30 years…?
Here’s what I did…
I looked back… admittedly not over my shoulder, to the person sat in the stand,
behind me… as the song indicates… because I wasn’t actually at the match, at
the Etihad Stadium, was I…? I forgot we’d moved from Maine Road… honest… ;) so
I was just sat in the pub, watching it on the telly. But did anyone, anyone at
all, apart from me, actually “…look back and say ‘There’s no-one quite like
John Bond, he has helped us on our way’…?”
If you didn’t… and
I’m pretty sure most of you have forgotten the promise you all made, amid the
euphoria of getting to the 1981 Centenary FA Cup Final… there’s no need to
worry. We’re still Champions, and there’s still (at least) the whole of the
rest of the season to go, in which to clear your conscience…
So, next time
you’re at the match… preferably during a quiet period (if there are any), just
stand up, and ‘look back’… wistfully, if you can (if you know what it means…!)…
over your shoulder… to the person sat in the stand behind you… and say “There’s
no-one quite like John Bond, he has helped us on our way”… Just like you always
said you would… ‘one day… when we’re Champions’… And even if for no other
reason, it’s well worth the funny looks you get…!
