3. Chelsea Monday

When I finished the military service my madness for Marillion started.  I would buy everything related to them: magazines, pictures, posters, Trewavas‘ vests, etc.  I am convinced that if there had been a limited series of Fish condoms in the shape of a fish, I would have bought them as well.  By the way, do you know what happened to Mosley?  Well, it turns out that he went to a store during the  carnivals to buy a mask and they only gave him the rubber band!

I will always associate Marillion with my first formal job.  I was 24 years old and I had just started to work in a bank.  It just damn happened that my beloved Marillion were playing in Marseille the following Monday.  It was the concert of my life and I had to go no matter what.  So, I went to talk to the office manager wearing an extremely worried expression, more or less as if my mother had just died.  I literally said:

            -Mikli: Mister Manager, I know I haven’t been working here for too long. (I had just started          the day before.)

            -Manager: Yes, Mr. Toris.

            -Mikli: Well, I have a problem.  For me it is very important, but probably for others it’s not.         I just hope you can understand me although we have different values and understand life in      a different way.

The manager’s face was a strange mixture between curiosity and incredulity.

            –Manager: Of course Mr. Toris, tell me what it’s all about and I´ll see if there is something I          can do.

 Again, I had to drag myself along the ground to request a damn day off to do the most normal thing in the world: go to see Marillion to Marseille.  I was fearing the worst…

            –Mikli: Mr. Manager, I don’t think I’ve explained myself well enough.

 He got comfortable in his office chair, lit up a cigarette and looked at me with an unfriendly expression.

            –Mikli:  The thing is, I’m not coming to work on Monday no matter what.

There was silence.  Seconds seemed like minutes.  My hands were sweating.  My tie was strangling me more than ever.

            –Manager: We are not going to argue on your first day of work, but I would feel much better        if you told me what it´s all about.  Although it’s your life and you don’t have the obligation         to tell me.

 And I was thinking… “Do I tell him I work in an NGO, or should I tell him the truth (… and he can think whatever he wants).”

            –Mikli: Mr. Manager, I have a small disease.

 The manager started to show a worried expression…” But who the fuck did we hire?”

             –Mikli: I am crazy, crazy for music and my favorite band plays on Monday.

 I actually noticed the man looked relieved.

            –Manager: But Mr. Toris, I don’t think there is any kind of problem.  You work in the          mornings and concerts are in the afternoons.

 Another problem, this guy thinks I’m going to go see Manolo Escobar in Bilbao.

            –Mikli: The concert is in the afternoon indeed, to be precise it is at 9 pm, but the fact is that          it’s in Marseille and I have a 12 hour train ride to get there.

             – Manager (looking alarmed): And at what time does your train get here the next morning?

            –Mikli: At 7´30am.

            –Manager: Take the next day off too and we will have more time to talk when you come back.       What did you say was the band’s name?

            –Mikli: Mr. Manager their name is Marillion, they aren’t very famous, but I strongly  recommend them to you.

I got away with it, but I had shot too many arrows on my second day of work.  Although the thing didn’t go so badly, I ended up working in the Bank for 4 years, which was a total record for me.

The concert was more than just a concert, it was an adventure that had started the week before with me in the Bank Manager’s office and my buddies hitchhiking towards the concert.  I personally went by train the same day of the concert with another buddy.

We got to Marseille quite early and we went directly to the place where the concert was going to be given, right next to the lighthouse.  We attended the sound check and after that, we chatted with the   members of the group for a while. (I was so excited I thought I was going to die!)  It was one of the most intense concerts I have ever attended.  By the way, we made friends everywhere we went and we had extra THC supplies which isn’t easy to find in France.

We went back on the train.  Igor didn’t feel like paying for his ticket and slept all night in the WC so that the conductor wouldn’t discover him.  He was a total wreck the next morning.