Alle & Joe (and everyone else)

Jade called me a number of months ago and said, “Are you still photographing weddings?  Well, I might be able to get you one but I want a favour in return”, “What’s the favour?” I asked.  Knowing Jade this could be anything from lending him a tenner to giving him a hand delivering something to China in a van.  “I want a photo shoot of the family.  So do you want the wedding gig or not?”.  I would have photographed Jades family for free anyway so with the return from the wedding I wouldn’t be losing out.  “OK, give me the details” I said.  “It’s on the 1^st November for Alle & Joe (mutual long time friends) and you’ve got to do it for free.  Right, I’ll speak to you soon, see ya”.  So not only has he acted as a charitable agent he has also given Alle me as a wedding present!  He’s somewhat of a genius and a cheeky little monkey.

Shortly after leaving the army all those years ago I began playing in a band.  Jade had told us that he knew of a brilliant bass player and he introduced us to Shaun.  In turn Shaun introduced us to loads of other people, seriously cool people, independent free thinkers, people who wore tie dye, girls who didn’t wear bra’s all the time and people who smiled and wanted to be friendly.  I have written about meeting ‘groovy’ people in the ‘Ma & Pa’ post but these people were genuine and proper cool, and even today I still feel a lot of love towards this crowd. 

Alle and Joe were part of that circle.  I used to play in a band with Alle, she was so playful, entertaining and lovely all the time, and she still is today.  Joe, who I thought was her husband 24 years ago, was a tall and smiley man and I have never heard a negative word leave his mouth.  They weren’t married but today they were going to rectify that.  This wasn’t going to be a wedding with veneers, this was true happiness surrounded by friends they loved and friends who loved them, a simple gathering of beautiful people to celebrate the union of Alle & Joe.

Shaun lived with his girlfriend at the time, Paula.  She scared me at first because she was quite forthright but it didn’t take me long to realise how beautiful and intelligent she was.  Her best friend was Mandy, and if I was Terry Thomas I’d be tempted to call her a beautiful creature, but it seems quite sexist coming from my mouth.  These 2 girls fell into the category of ‘the girls that sometimes didn’t wear bra’s’, and as a single boy that had just left the army I appreciated that very much.  I would never dare say anything that would be considered ‘lewd’ in fear of being ejected from the social circles I was mixing in, or indeed being knocked out by a single punch from a woman!

I was being introduced to a whole load of new experiences.  I would have dinner at friends houses (that felt very grown up!), listened to new music, even house music (but quite honestly, without drugs it did my fucking head in!) and the band was starting to gig.  We played our first gig in Blackburn, a charity gig.  Our support act was a bunch of kids in a Chinese dragon thing, not very Rock n Roll but hey!  Paula’s sister Clarey had just got married that day and she and her new husband were in the crowd.  That night we all went back to Shaun & Paula’s to get pissed n ting and to celebrate Clarey’s wedding.  They ended up sleeping on the floor at Shaun’s, now that’s Rock n Roll!

Jude was a matriarchal character in the peer group and she used to tell me stories that had me laughing for days.  The ‘bleach of the peach’ & ‘the Rochdale hedgehog’ are 2 stories that firmly stick in the mind.  (I did tell Jude that I had posted about the hedgehog recently but it wasn’t in this blog, I think I mailed the story to a chap in Germany.  I will post very soon!).

Although the day was truly beautiful it did make me feel a tad old.  The last time I saw Louis, one of Alle & Joe’s kids, I was carrying him on my shoulders during the Preston Guild fireworks in 1992, now I was sat next to him talking about his new baby.  Diane Hutchinson was there too, the last time I saw her was in 1986!  And there were loads more people I hadn’t seen in ages.

A truly lovely day.

"Joe n Alle"