Paul Haig Day

When JC first mooted the idea of Paul Haig day, I liked the idea but thought that the possibility of me making a worthwhile contribution was nil, as I have to confess that the majority of his music passed me by.

Over the last week I have been wondering why this was and still haven't come up with a plausible explanation. Sure, when Joseph K were kicking about I was still at primary school but I'm sure that the band's records would have been in S's brothers collections, something I forgot to verify with one of said brothers when I met him at the weekend. Orange Juice and Aztec Camera were label mates at Postcard, both of whom I love so I am at a loss as to why I didn't get into them.

The first memory I have of hearing Joseph K would be around 1985, 2 guys, Mill and G that I kicked about with, both of whom had older brothers who sported quiffs and were the epitome of "indie" at that time, would mention and play tracks by the band but it just didn't grab me in the same way as, say, the Mary Chain or Friends Again. I liked what I heard I just didn't seek out the records, partly in retrospect I think due to the rarity of the vinyl.

I don't know about where you come from but being a 15/16 year old in Lanarkshire in the 80's our weekends revolved round somebody's parents being away, them deciding to have a party and our exploits in trying to secure a carry-oot in order to attend the bash.

After a few of such events we realised that the people who had these nights, mostly had a terrible taste in music and we would end up listening to crap from the likes of Duran Duran. I have vivid memories of Peter Gabriel's So and Talking Heads Little Creatures being ubiquitous at these nights. So we decided to take our own records not only whenever we were invited to these parties but also when we weren't but were aware that somebody had an empty.

On one of these occasions Mill decided to raid his brother's collection and take along his prize Joseph K singles. Which girl he hoped to impress with these singles is anyone's guess, as let's face it the main reason to take your own records to parties was to show how "cool" you were in order to impress a member of the opposite sex with your taste enough that you got a winch and to walk a girl home.

Anyway on this occasion Mill's attempts were fruitless and he decided to go home with his records via the park. Being rather the worse for wear probably due to Buckfast and his tendency to narcolepsy he decided to have a kip on a bench. After a snooze he headed home.

The following afternoon when totally compos mentis he realised that he had left the Josef K singles in the park. He went back, however the singles were nowhere to be seen. I am not sure now if he fessed up to his brother or not but I think he did and got a kicking for it.

Anyway, that is my rather convoluted and not totally relevant contribution to Paul Haig Day and this is one of the singles that went missing that night.

Josef K - Chance Meeting

If you like what you hear you can buy the Josef K compilation Entimology here. Go on give some support to one of the good guys.