My old friend Jimmy

Dinner with my old friend Jimmy who I played guitar with for years in pubs and bars in London, as Don & Ray. We never decided who was who, although I always felt I was more of a Ray than a Don. We had 2 acoustic guitars with pick-ups stuck on with double-sided tape, which always fell off in the middle of songs. We’d set up a small PA in various pubs [anyone from the Walmer Castle, Ledbury Road, Notting Hill, from the 80s to the 90s?] We’d play 30 songs, some of our own, some covers, while attempting to get off with the South African bar girls who we assumed must have really fancied us… Jim was always the better looking, so I always presumed they would go for him first. We used a kettle lead to power the amp, and balanced speakers precariously high up on bar stools placed on tables because we couldn’t afford stands, and hoped that nobody knocked them over… Sometime we forgot the kettle lead. The South African bar girls weren’t that impressed.