Romeo And Julietstock

A lovestruck Romeo sings the streets a serenade,
Laying everybody low with a love song that he made,
Finds a streetlight steps out of the shade,
Says something like: ”You and me babe - how about it?”

Regular as clockwork, every – I mean every time that I am about to fly home, a reason emerges to stay, usually within the final 24 hours. Tonight was my latest flight date, so after going out for a final coffee with everyone at work, we returned to the office to find my new visa and Work Permit waiting for me, valid for another 12 months.

Again and again and again.

So yes – I was daring to expect it. God always seems to come through at the last moment – if he was quicker, then we’d never recognise that it was him.

That said, I try not to jump to conclusions. Just because he’s kept me here for 18 months now, doesn’t prove that this is where he wants me for the 19th.

Anyway, as if to embrace my fast-approaching 2nd Christmas away from home, this evening was spent with my flatmates.

Then cockney Neil had an idea.

Juliet says “Hey, it's Romeo, (IN THICK LONDON ACCENT) you nearly gave me an ‘eart attack,”
He's underneath the window, she's singing “Hey-la, my boyfriend's back,
You shouldn't come around here singing up at people like that,
Anyway, what you gonna do about it?”

He wanted to watch a video of Mark Knopfler singing his track Romeo And Juliet, so of course flatmate Dave, being an aficionado of all things Dire, rose to the occasion by presenting us with a whole evening of it. That’s right – into the wee small hours, watching the entire back-catalogue of Knopfler performing just the one song over and over again down the years in rough chronological order. It was such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that even Tim downstairs checked his brains at the door to join us.

Now I like Mark Knopfler, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who didn’t appreciate his unique flavour of metal guitar twanging, but the question I was facing tonight was this: would I still like him after 2 hours of the same song?

Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start,
And I bet that you exploded into my heart,
And I forget I forget the movie song,
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong?
Juliet…

First up was a VHS of a live performance from the 1980s. It appeared to have been filmed at some theatre in London. There stood this young man, still looking slightly surprised at his new-found fame, crooning away in an unexpectedly high-pitched voice. Wow - whatever happened to those tones?

Being the 80s, when music on TV still had a colour-signal, this had been shot in apparently low-light on real grainy film. Very cold and uncomfortable, and yet the pitch-black around him brought a certain intimacy that you just don’t get with today’s electronic filmic-effected recordings.

Come up on different streets, they both were streets of shame,
Both dirty, both mean, yes and the dream was just the same,
And I dreamed your dream for you and now your dream is real,
How can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals?

When you can fall for chains of silver, you can fall for chains of gold,
You can fall for pretty strangers, and the promises they hold,
You promised me everything, you promised me thick and thin, yeah,
Now you just say “oh Romeo, yeah, you know I used to have a scene with him.”

Perhaps an hour later we were watching an older incarnation playing to another (probably also older) audience outdoors. The young man’s fortunes had clearly been on the up, as he had by now recruited Eric Clapton to provide backing for some other numbers.

Juliet, when we made love you used to cry,
You said “I love you like the stars above, I'll love you till I die,
”There's a place for us you know the movie song,
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong?
Juliet…

A brief hiccup in the second half as Dave realised that the Live Aid tape had gone A.W.O.L….

I can't do the talk so like the talk on the TV,
And I can't do a love song like the way it's meant to be,
I can't do everything, but I'll do anything for you,
I can't do anything except be in love with you,

At some point we watched the original video, which doesn't appear to even feature Knopfler. Now that was a bit of a blast from the past. Its sheer unashamed conviction could teach an entire diploma in video directing today.

And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be,
All I do is keep the beat and the bad company,
Now all I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme,
Juliet, I'd do the stars with you any time,

… until we eventually came bang up to date with camcorder footage of his last tour to date. These recordings are always great – shot from the audience on maximum zoom, so that any tiny little jolt of the tripod looks like a meteor collision.

By now Knopfler was a grey man in his middle-ages, which gave the exact same lyrics a deepness of conviction that his earlier youthful inexperience hadn’t been able to.

Juliet, when we made love you used to cry,
You said I love you like the stars above, I'll love you till I die,
There's a place for us you know the movie song,
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong?

Juliet…

And we finished.

So what on Earth does Knopfler do between concerts? That last sight of him sitting on stage between tracks with a mug of tea in his hands rather gave me the impression that he barely gets any time to give performances now, because he’s just too busy working on something far more serious and important, like experimenting with music to find a cure for death.

And why not, after all, performing Romeo And Juliet on stage in front of thousands of people IS hard work. Being a giant pop legend isn’t all money for nothing.

A lovestruck Romeo sings the streets a serenade,
Laying everybody low with a lovesong that he made,
Finds a convenient streetlight, steps out of the shade,
Says something like: “You and me babe, how about it...

...you and me babe, how about it…?”

(and would you believe while writing this I've found another one...)