I got scared. I freely admit it; I’m not too much of a man to let you know that at three am on a Saturday night/Sunday morning I got scared in Hammersmith.
Not in a threatened violence way, something far more sinister.
I had been out to see a band in West Kensington, the West Four One club was grimy and suitably so for a music venue, but at Kensington prices. Having missed the last tube back, it was time for a trek into Hammersmith to catch the night bus.
I’ve never walked into Hammersmith at night, and was unaware what might lie in store. I had no idea it would be this bad.
For in Hammersmith on a Saturday night is where they hold the …School Disco…(writing tip for Terry, if you want to build up some tension as to actually what is scary, might be an idea not to use it in the title – ). Hundreds and hundreds of men and women in school uniforms. To some this would be a fantasy, but I can only presume that all of the Britney Spears-esque girls had pulled hours before and gone off somewhere, for what was left thronging the streets were more like the dinnerladies.
I can’t see the attraction in this school disco thing (except for the Britney spears bit, obviously) I used to hate school discos the fear of the bullies multiplied by the lack of anyone to get off with and all was hideous.
And may I remind people that we didn’t wear school uniforms at the discos, one horrible memory that sticks is me wearing a shell suit trying to do the caterpillar on the floor of the hall to Boom Boom Shake Shake the Room, I don’t want this memory to be with me, but thanks to Saturday night it is.
What scared me most though, was that most of the people in the streets at this time were actually of school age. I overhead a conversation about GCSE’s, not even any nostalgic quality, they spend all week at school, then go to a school disco o n a Saturday night.
And this is our future?