by Tom Cox
‘That’s Raf,’ she said. ‘A few of the parents are a bit scared of him.’
‘Yes, I can see why,’ I said. ‘That metal thing sticking out of his eyebrow could be a liability in a rugby scrum.’
‘As you probably know, Petter really looks up to him.’
‘Well, yeah. Raf was the one who got him into Nirvana, wasn’t he?’
‘I worry about the two of them sometimes, but I suppose everyone’s got to have a role model.’
‘Yeah. I’m sure he’s quite harmless underneath all that hair . . . It is hair, isn’t it?’
What was most astonishing about Axe Demons wasn’t just the level of musical quality on show, but the level of encouragement. No matter how many combinations of musicians took the stage, a hardcore gaggle of teen supporters remained seated on the floor at the front, always applauding, always patting backs, always wishing their friends good luck. These were supposed to be teenagers, for god’s sake! They weren’t supposed to be this enthusiastic . . . this musical . . . this . . . happy.
The moments of self-doubt came one after another. I questioned what I’d been doing, trying to give Petter a musical education when it was quite clear he had a perfectly good one right here. I questioned why Petter had barely said a word to me all night. But then – and I don’t say this lightly, since someone was singing an Alanis Morissette song at the time – I relaxed. Petter was back in his natural habitat now, and it was up to me to leave him to it. My job was done, and I’d done okay. Sure, in a few days’ time I’d be back at home, listening to Steve Miller or watching Friends while wearing a fuzzy dressing gown, or in Norwich, walking on the other side of the street to some slack-jawed insult to innocence in a baseball cap. But the fact was, I’d faced my fear. I’d looked a quintessential example of Teen right in the crisp-stuffed face, asked the big question of myself, and the answer had come through loud and clear: ‘I can spend time in the company of this – just.’ Not only that, I’d done it at the time in my life when I was most likely to be repelled by my subject – the time when I was furthest away from my own adolescence, yet not quite into thirty- and forty-something living and the inevitable kid-sympathy that comes with it. And where was I now? In a room with 200 teenagers, some of them singing songs that I would once have left the country to avoid. And how did I feel? Impervious, going on tranquil. Petter would remember this night for one reason or another – a girl he’d asked out, a friendship he’d consolidated, a new song he’d learned – the evening had that sort of feel to it. But I felt that I’d remember it equally well, if not better. Not for the music (though it was surprisingly enjoyable), not for the food, not for the electro-pop star, not even for Petter or the Blue Oyster Cult CD that I’d hidden in his guitar case, but for the other thing that I’d finally jettisoned: something a little bit tightly wound. Something a little bit backward. Something a little bit nervous. Something a little bit paranoid. Something a little bit male.
Something a little bit teenage.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank the following:
Peter and Jenny for everything, Edie for the moral support, Steve and Sue Golden for the shine, Ed The T for the tights, Harriet Simms and Pat Tynan for the phone numbers, Jim Eldon for the fiddle, the gentle but psychedelic folk people of Blackheath and Plumstead for the gentleness and firearms, Matt Argues for the angst, Jenny Fabian for the patience, and Darian Wondermint for the tickets.
About the Author
Tom Cox’s writing has appeared in the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times, Observer, Mail on Sunday, Jack magazine, The Times and the Guardian, for which paper he was Pop Critic between 1999 and 2000. He is the author of two books: Nice Jumper, which was shortlisted for the 2002 National Sporting Club Best Newcomer Award, and Educating Peter. He was born in 1975 and lives with his wife in Norfolk.
Also by Tom Cox
NICE JUMPER
and published by Black Swan
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EDUCATING PETER
A BLACK SWAN BOOK: 9780552771191
Version 1.0 Epub ISBN: 9781448109968
PRINTING HISTORY
Bantam Press edition published 2003
Black Swan edition published 2004
Copyright © Tom Cox 2003
Tom Cox has asserted his right under the Copyright Designs and Patents act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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