Dad was a real party animal. He loved to go at the pub and have a
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singsong with his mates and drink as much stout as possible. All of his
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cronies used to go with him. And at closing time they'd come back home.
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Back to the front room where Dave and I would be practising.
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And dad would walk in and he'd say "Shut that rubbish up. Get out.
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We're gonna have a party and I'm gonna perform".
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You see, dad was a real performer. He'd clear the floor, had more
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to drink, started dancing around, balancing beer on the top his head,
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singing at top of his voice until he fell arse over tip on the floor.
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But the girls would come home, the boyfriends would arrive,
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and everybody had a great party. That's everybody except Dave and I.
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And we thought to ourselves "How can we make some sort of impact
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on this very strange family?". So we decided to put away our plastic
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skiffle guitars and turn electric. Yes, make more noice!
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There was an electrical appliance shop up the road, that's where we
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thought we'd turn electric. It was in the window, it was this long,
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and this high, and it was 8 Watts in volume. But it was covered in this
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really horrible green formica. But Dave and I thought "That's for us".
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We bought it and we christened it "the green amplifier".
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But does anyone know what 8 Watts sound like? 8 Watts? Crap!
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But never mind. We thought it was brilliant then, because we took it
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home, both plugged in the back and practised day and night.
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Yeah, Dave, come on man, yeah, come on, Dave.
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The girls thought it was great, young musicians in the family.
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But Dave and I noticed that one of our sisters was going out with a guy
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who was a bouncer in the local ball room. And our observations through
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the keyhole into the front room told us that this guy wasn't going down
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to well with my sister. And we rephrace it over there for this lady.
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Sorry, madam, I'm sorry. The relationship was not flourishing as it should,
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how's that? But Dave, he was only 8 years old, but he was already
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corrupt, and he says to this guy "Excuse me, mister, if you get me and
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my brother a gig at your ball room this weekend, we'll have a word with
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our sister. Will that be alright?".
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And this guy says "Oh, thanks very much, son, that 'd be nice".
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But lo and behold, the following saturday Dave, myself and a friend from
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Coldfall estate with the name of Pete Quaife, we all found ourselves on
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stage, playing in front of a thousand cynical teddy boys.
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And all three of us were plugged in to the little green amp.
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And we didn't have a drummer, we didn't need a drummer, we had
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the movements, coordinated movements. But the teddy boys were
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unimpressed. Somebody threw a bottle of beer at us and eventually
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the management were forced to drag us off the stage.
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We were still plugged in and still playing, but they dragged us off.
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But the green amp stayed on stage, still plugged in, still giving everything.
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You know, the green amp came to service very very well in our career.
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These things often have a way of working out.
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Dad And The Green Amp (Dialogue)
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Ray Davies |