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Following a family emergency several hundred miles away, I found myself last night having to drive 300 miles home having had 4 hours sleep in the previous 48. Actually more like 60. This meant driving back was a bit of a nightmare, it's nearly all motorway and staying awake was going to be a problem, even with all the coffee and diet-coke.
Well, I have a 6 CD autochanger in the boot and I tend to have 5 CD's by various artists and then a made up CD of the best songs from the other 5. At the moment I have some Avril Lavigne, Green Day, Robbie Williams, Meatloaf and of course Peachtree Road with the 3 bonus "Billy Elliot" tracks. Most of the CDs I've played to death and on the way back I was listening to the combination disc over and over again singing my head off all the way home, especially "Electricity", "Merry Xmas Maggie Thatcher" and "the Letter". I was getting very strange looks from some of the other drivers. Especially at one set of roadworks where I also happened to have the windows wide open.
With about 100 miles to go even this wasn't working well to keep me awake, I'd sung the songs too many times. I stopped again for an injection of caffeine and then put on the final spurt up the M6 for home. I decided that rather than listen to the CD again, I would sing songs from "Billy Elliot". I've seen it six times now so know most of the tunes, but not all of the lyrics. I started working my way through the songs, starting with "The Stars look down" which I absolutely love. Kind of avoiding "Shine" and "We'd go dancing" as I don't really know those at all apart from the chorus's. Next I reached "Solidarity" which was brilliant. I couldn't remember some of the interplay between the miners and the police so made up some of my own on the spot:
Oi, you, white van man.
You're gonna cause a shunt.
travelling in the fast lane,
driving like a $%^&.
Solidarity, solidarity, solidarity forever,
travelling in the fast lane,
Solidarity forever.
It would have probably gone even better if I could have found a driving word that rhymed with solidarity but it worked for me, keeping me awake for the last hundred miles. I carried on through most of the other songs, but always kept coming back to "Solidarity" when I felt like giving another driver a piece of my mind. Hurling abuse in song really is most gratifying.
I'm not sure how Lee Hall would have appreciated me mangling his lyrics or how Elton would have appreciated me mangling his tunes trying to get my made up lyrics to fit, but it did keep me awake all the way home, giggling most of the way.
I've said it earlier in the thread and in PM's but thanks WestEndPro for this thread, the pictures, and the information. Most of all though, thanks to the cast and crew for a wonderful musical which I plan on seeing a lot more times.
Well, it's time for your normal programming to be resumed.
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All great things must come to pass. We know the first will soon be last and in the ground we may be lain , but a seed is sown to rise again.
Updated On: 8/10/05 at 06:42 AM