Eleven men with dreadful haircuts and amphetamine psychosis

[mrph]

Well, that was an odd way to spend the morning. I finally got a chance to sit down and listen to the Alan Moore / Tim Perkins "Highbury Working" CD, spoken word with musical accompaniment.

It's rather good. Well, ok, it's rather good if you like Alan Moore's brand of wordplay - it's much less mystical than his first CD (The Moon and Serpent), as it concentrates on the history of Highbury. It's still got plenty of occult overtones and undertones, but mostly it's anecdotes and summaries about the history of the place. A bit like the recent Ackroyd book, or Moore's own Voice of the Fire.

The recording's taken from a live performance, upstairs at The Garage, which was also something of a surprise. Wish I'd been there for that one...

"Highbury wasn't at death's door, it was halfway down death's passage, hanging up its coat. No serial murderers, no ghosts. It didn't even merit bold type in the A to Z. You might as well be on the moon. Highbury was amnesiac, whole sections of its past were blank. A geriatric out on day release and lost somewhere on the Victoria line, only identifiable by dental records"

That's how it starts. It goes on to excavate the past, from the Roman fort that once stood there through to freak shows and Pepper's ghost, Crowley, Coleridge, Joe Meek and Jack 'The Hat', as well as the 1925 Arsenal team, owned by a crook and fueled by speed (hence the subject line). Good stuff, all of it. The Tim Perkins soundtrack is a bit hefty for the first few minutes, but then slips happily into the background and enhances the speech instead of obscuring it.