NO REGRETS

I’m getting my ‘No Regrets’ tattoo lasered off
And losing my leather for less interesting stuff
The drinks in the city swap for runs in the rain
I’m looking for somebody brand new I can blame.

The cats in the rat race run round and round,
Follow the staircase going up and down.
My head’s in the clouds but both my feet on the ground,
Leaving me behind.

I’m tired of being told what I should do and should think
And new information daily sends me a-spin
Genetics we try so hard to m-modify
Run myself to ground a-just to prove I’m alive.

Ah the cats in the rat race run round and round,
Follow the staircase going up and down.
My head’s in the clouds but both my feet are on the ground,
Leaving me behind.

As I read through my history with a pen in my hand,
I write down my victories on the back of a stamp.
I look to the left of me to see the dry land
Leaving me behind.

SAME OLD SUN

S-s-s-stop, start, stop and start again.
Place full stop on yesterday.
Bring yourself in from the cold.
Disregard the stuff you’re told.
Comatose and caught again.
Hold your nose and count to ten.

Hey ho mister! So the story goes
You’re feeling all alone,
And the swing has gone out of your song.
Oh no! Now what you done?
When the morning comes, it’s the same old…

STOP! Start! Stop! Square one again.
Put down sword, pick up a pen.
Working might not set you free,
Rut for lunch and trap for tea.
Overdosed and underdone.
Hold your nose and count to one.

Hey ho mister! So the story goes
You’re feeling all alone,
And the swing has gone out of your song.
Oh no! Now what you done?
When the morning comes, it’s the same old sun.

Hey ho mister! So the story goes
You’re feeling all alone,
And the swing has gone out of your song.
Oh no! Now what you done?
When the morning comes, it’s the same old, same old.

Hey mister! You’re not on your own.
You’d get me on the phone –
But to ring, you got to switch it on.
Oh no! Now what you done?
When the morning comes, it’s the same old sun.

CRACKING UP

Judgement Day is finally here.
Man on television says we’ve nothing to fear.
Yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah.
Led astray by my puppeteer.
Smashing through a window for the last souvenir.

Vengeance and vertigo… here comes the undertow.

England, I love you, but lately I think I’m cracking up.
Albion, my darling, my baby, I think I’m cracking up.

Open up and look to the sky.
A little bit of everything for you, him and I…
Yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah.
Sure enough, they’re sharpening knives,
Strangling the streets with your damn Stepford Lives

Ten down and one to go… I get a burn from the afterglow.

England, I love you, but lately I think I’m cracking up.
Albion, my darling, my baby, I think I’m cracking up

YEAH – OH NO

Today I’m miserable.
Today I’m tired of everything.
This time it’s physical.
This time it’s weighing down my brain.

I take the strain, I share the weight, I make a yeah from an oh no.
I tell myself, it’s just a phase, and make a yeah from an oh no.

Collect my arsenal.
Fight fire with fire is just my way.
It’s nothing personal –
You light my ire every day.

I take the strain, I share the weight, I make a yeah from an oh no.
I tell myself, it’s just a phase, and make a yeah from an oh no no.

I take the strain, I share the weight, I make a yeah from an oh no.
I tell myself, it’s just a phrase, and make a yeah from an oh no.

I wanna be a better me, so make a yeah from an oh no.
I take a breath and count to three to make a yeah from an oh no.

WAKE ME UP ON MONDAY

Tell me
Everything is alright out in the cold.
Help me
Everything is okay, or so I’m told.

Translations of salvations untied together tight.
Wake me up on Monday
Wake me up on Monday
Rationing compassion, will the kids still be alright?
Wake me up on Monday
Wake me up on Monday, please.

Hold me
Everything is all good! I shout it out.
Control me
Everything that you stood for disallowed.

Frustration with inflation ‘cos fortunate so blind.
Wake me up on Monday
Wake me up on Monday
Admission of transmission with corporate in mind.
Wake me up on Monday
Wake me up on Monday, please

Shake, baby shake!
To the permanant debate.
Is my sermon a better version than the others?
Hey! Don’t be late.
It’s the Human Race today.
If we wanna, we can battle it forever.
It’s a coat of many colours.
The medicine for the masses,
The disease for all the classes,
The rose that tints the glasses,
Or the Phoenix in the ashes?

Wake me up on Monday
Wake me up on Monday

Salvation in science,
Lifeline left in love.

Wake me up on Monday
Wake me up on Monday
Just wake me up on Monday, please.

HOW DO YOU SLEEP

The nights are long, the days are short,
Overthinking, underthought.
Without a hand, you lose your touch,
A mirror would be much too much.

Another season springs and falls,
The writing clearer on the wall.
You’re near enough, almost for life,
So why the need to run and hide?

‘Cos ideas don’t grow on trees,
So you hide your fears with anti-freeze.
Today your role is Rent-a-gob,
But tomorrow you might need a job

The river dries, another drought,
You’ve nothing left to sing about.
And those who’ve always been in thrall,
Suddenly don’t answer calls.

‘Cos loneliness was heaven sent,
By angels on your own expense.
But solitude lets you reflect,
And look down from your own ship, wrecked.

We tried to aid, we tried to fight,
We got rid of the parasites,
The truth is found in a nutshell –
You can’t help those who don’t want help!

You don’t own a word you’ve spoken, ah.
You don’t own a second of your time.

You sneer at those beneath your kind,
And look at me with disdainful eye.
I’ve failed, because I’m not like you…
Well, I can be judgemental too.

I may well be a nobody.
You might not see me on TV.
But I’m out soon as I hit the light…
How do you sleep at night?

DISTANCE OVER TIME

MIdnight on an Atlantic drift
Got a gutful of gifts and a story
Sunlight creeping into my veins
But the memory remains allegory
Quicksand seeping out of my mind
When the planets align, there’s alarm bells
Crashland, back to Earth with a bump
So uncomfortably numb in my brain cells

Chanced on a challenge without a name
Chasing all our dreams on gasoline
We write imaginary stories, I don’t know why
Distance over time

Floodlight shining deep in my eyes
For a look at the prize I am holding
In flight, got no helmet or belt
And come high water or hell I’ll be going
Unwise I am coming undone
All together alone in the hollow
Sunrise, wired and wonderful
A bit uncomfortable with the shadows

Chanced on a challenge without a name
Chasing all our dreams on gasoline
We write imaginary stories, I don’t know why
Choosing distance over time

Yesterday’s over
Tomorrow won’t come
Forever enamoured
And ever undone

I HOPE WE ALWAYS STAY THE SAME

This time I’m serious
This time I know
Now a me has turned into an us
I see the world in stereo

I hope we always stay the same, my love
You make me dream when I’m asleep
We’ll blow the whole world far away, my love
You make me dream when I’m asleep
Lock the door and let the outside turn
Sharing everything we own
Making memories around the world
We will never be alone

I hope we always stay the same, my love
You make me dream when I’m asleep
We’ll blow the whole world far away, my love
You make me dream when I’m asleep

This time I’m serious
This time I know
Little me has turned into an us
And I see the world in stereo

I hope we always stay the same, my love
You make me dream when I’m asleep
We’ll blow the whole world far away, my love
You make me dream when I’m asleep

I hope we always stay the same, my love
You make me dream when I’m asleep
We’ll blow the whole world far away, my baby
You make me dream when I’m asleep

STICKS AND STONES

Hey hey, genius!
Back on the scene, hiding inside a screen, oh yeah.
Well you’re a skilful guy
You can dance, you can sing, you can do most anything that you like.

Hey hey, Mastermind!
Do not delay! You got something to say, oh yeah.
Get yourself on the line
You’re like Shakespeare set to stun, oh I can smell opinions asinine.

Sticks and stones with the zeroes and ones,
Must be hard keeping up with the Jones.
Stones and sticks and the dirtiest tricks
Must be sad being oh so alone.

Hey hey, Einstein!
Back on TV, famous for infamy, oh yeah.
A premium rate parasite.
You can hiss, you can diss with your pride in prejudice every night.

Sticks and stones with the zeroes and ones,
Must be hard keeping up with the Jones.
Stones and sticks and the dirtiest tricks
Must be sad being oh so alone.

Sticks and stones with the zeroes and ones,
Must be hard keeping up with the Jones.
Stones and sticks and the dirtiest tricks
Must be sad being oh so alone.

Sticks and stones with the zeroes and ones,
Must be hard keeping up with the Jones.
Stones and sticks and the dirtiest tricks
Must be sad to be oh so alone.

FAR

I need to get away a while
The grey replace the Anglophile.
In the city it’s too busy, I need pretty and no misery tonight.

Time to try alternatives, so you,
You wipe away the negative.
My aptitude for solitude in my internal turpitude is high.
Put the rat race back in its place in the solace of the shelf
And get the spark back in this heart of black, I know it can’t be helped around here.

Far! Don’t need any reason
Far! For a change of season
Just get in the car and go

Look inside for something else,
It’s the junior version of myself.
Recognise the red inside and smell the scent of second prize in here.
Seems only yesterday the world was grey and no-one knew my name
Then I was trendy, it was a Wednesday but by Thursday out the game, and disappear

Far! Don’t need any reason
Far! For a change of season
Just get in the car and go
Far! Don’t need any reason
Far! For a change of season
Just get in the car and go far.

Just take me away.

Far! Don’t need any reason
Far! For a change of season
Just get in the car and go
Far! Don’t need any reason
Far! Just a change of season
Just get in the car and go

YOU DIE AT THE END

I’ve got magical potions
To help me forget.
Medications in various nations have led to both fun and regret.

I’ve got cod liver oil
And fitness regimes.
Run like light and then spend every night simply smoking away the bad dreams.

All this disease could put you on your knees if the broke memories drag you round
So swing in the breeze because life guarantees that we all fall down.

I’ve broke bread with the brilliant
And occasional bores.
I’ve been given smiles I’ve held on to a while and some frowns that I’ve felt for far more.

Hurt hearts and won joyrides
Lost too many friends.
The light that burns bright burns for half of the night in a lifetime of misplaced weekends.

All of this junk to put rings round your trunk and a bus might send you underground.
So take every plunge and no need to skip lunch ‘cos we all fall down.
Yeah we all fall down, down at the end.

Now and again, we do all these things to over extend our life
But you can depend you die at the end.
Yeah, jump in the deep end
You sink or you swim
You break or you bend.
On life, well you can depend, you die at the end.

God, I miss David Bowie
He was my paperweight.
And when he went back to Mars, man, I swear that the stars looked so very different that day.

All of these stars that surround us with art, well you don’t think they won’t be around.
But the beat of our hearts won’t slow down their depart
Cos we all fall down,
Yeah we all fall down, down at the end.

Now and again, we do all these things to over extend our life
But you can depend you die at the end.
Yeah, jump in the deep end
You sink or you swim
You break or you bend.
On life, well you can depend, you die at the end.

Yeah, life, now and again, we do all these things to over extend our time
But you can depend you die at the end.
Yeah, jump in the deep end
You sink or you swim
You make do and mend.
Oh life, on this you depend, you die at the end.

ABLE SEAMEN

A journey uncertain
To God only knows
I look round the curtain
And I suppose
Out of my comfort zone
Into the great unknown
I’ll go

Ran out of ideas
And misplaced my pride
I pin back my ears
And race with the tide
Lamb to the slaughter at
Uncharted water
Black and blue

A life more ordinary
Missing the mirrors and smoke

Able seamen dampen demons
Here in the deep end
Drowning while I’m waving

I couldn’t hack it
As poet nor scribe
My Northern straitjacket
In which I can hide

Swimming against the stream of my own self-esteem

See darkened horizon
In this brave new world
While keeping my eyes on
All the bridges I burned

Out my frozen past
Into the looking glass
I’ll go

No life-belt
Chance of shipwreck
Choose now to sink or swim

Able seamen dampen demons
Here in the deep end
Drowning while I’m waving