Dark Luminosity by Jah Wobble

Author:Jah Wobble
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2024-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

John Barleycorn Takes Control

By that time I was behaving very unpredictably. I began to have blackouts when drinking. I could be a very angry man during those blackouts. These scared the life out of me. I would wake up and not have any knowledge of where I had been or what I had been doing. I was never sure who I might have upset or offended. I never knew for sure how people would react to me when I walked into the pub the next day. By this stage I could, at times, still drink my normal quota of booze, which was approximately one large bottle of Jack Daniel’s (the Old House at Home stocked it just for me), a few Guinnesses and a couple of bottles of wine. However, there were other occasions when, after just a couple of drinks, I would be completely pissed. I couldn’t work out what was going on. I didn’t realise that my liver was no longer able to cope efficiently with my booze intake. (I tried hammering the speed again in an attempt to keep myself going while drinking; however, it only made things worse.) The whites of my eyes and my skin had a yellow tinge. When sleeping after drinking I would increasingly lose control of my bladder. On a few occasions I woke up in the open air with wet trousers in the cold light of day, and I would be full of shame and remorse.

Some people tried to talk sense into me but I wouldn’t let them get close, so I laughed them off. I particularly remember Jeffrey Lee Pierce from the band the Gun Club pulling me up. The Gun Club were on the same touring circuit as us and our paths crossed on a couple of occasions. Jeffrey had observed me getting stuck into the JD first thing in the morning, and he knew from his own experience where I was heading. Sometimes it’s funny how life turns out: I ended up getting sober, but Jeffrey, from what I understand, never got himself sorted out, and he died horribly prematurely in the mid-nineties.

I’d sometimes look very shabby and would do my best when in drink to stay away from Margaux’s. I would stay in the East End. People were a lot more forgiving of my behaviour there. When I came off a bender I’d have the shakes and normally, by that stage of proceedings, would be sporting a long thick beard. I’d then pay a visit to Chris’s barber shop in Cavell Street in Whitechapel. I had been going there since I was a kid. Chris was a Greek Cypriot who liked a bet. Actually, he liked a bet very much indeed. Chris was a very cheerful bloke. ‘Hello, my friend,’ he would say, ‘you have been on the beer again.’ But he was never judgemental. He had a very nice way, did Chris. He would give me a haircut and a ‘hot towel’ shave. He would also give me, as he did everyone, a tip for the gee-gees.

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