One thought on “Sunday Toona: Behind Blue Eyes Edition

  1. Brief biographical note.

    Google “Roger Daltrey, Lakedown Fishery, Sussex”.

    A friend took me down to his pay-for-play stocked fishery in its early days.

    Half an hour after our arrival Rog’ himself appeared on the bank behind me, wearing skinny Levi 501s (like my own, but even tighter) and a smart waxed-cotton Barbour jacket (like mine but lacking the barbed-wire-ripped holes and wax-less yellow patches gained from a decade and a half of all-weathers all-rivers wear), just as I was quietly shaking my head and engaging in a bit of private, angsty-fishy existential inner dialogue … “Oh God … Wall-to-wall fake fish … Do I really HAVE to…? S’pose I have to … I am a guest….”

    Rog’ and I spent a wonderful hour chatting on the bank; he didn’t seem to want to leave, I couldn’t get rid of him. He only learned that I was a guest of a Fishery Regular of his who went by the name of Paul and who wasn’t at all starstuck or wished to talk about the 1960s Mods and Rockers, Vespa Scooters versus the greasy Rocker Big Bikers scene, but was good enough to say to me, very pleasantly and with a puzzled grin, not once but twice: “You’re not like the usual fishers I see here, mate…”.

    I merely briefly angled my head and smiled the comment away, but privately thought myself “Too right, mate.”.

    Later, I gave the two “brace” limit (4 fishy bodies) of the large-ish, stocked rainbows that I had dutifully caught to the man who had given me my day at Lakedown, as a thank you.

    Besides, I was a Keef, Mick and the Stones man – well, music-mad child – back in Rog’s Mid 60s “Hope I die before I get old” Day.

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