It's been too long my friends Since we dined together at the Kentish Canteen This March, it just never ends And I think I'm losing my mind I need to see you again At the Kentish Canteen Well the food was far from perfect And the decor wasn't great The waiters wouldn't serve you if you came in after eight They wouldn't cook for veggies And they watered down the wine But after 16 months on Zoom, I think it’ll do me fine We'll have the pasta al dente And the steak that's overcooked The soup is far too thin and has the fly that's overlooked We'll have the cakes with soggy-bottoms And a most peculiar tart But if I dine out with my friends, gazpacho will warm my heart But a hundred or more unsaid goodbyes Will be undone, it’ll be undone If you find yourself feeling down my friends Talking once again through a screen Know we’ll one day be arm in arm again ‘Neath the sign, at the Kentish Canteen Well, our stew was over seasoned, As we'd overdone the mace But our chilli was divine, it was by far our saving grace And that just about redeemed us For our most egregious fibs Which we told when we drank whisky and we ruined all the ribs Well a hundred or more unsaid goodbyes Will be undone, it’ll be undone If you find yourself feeling down my friends Talking once again through a screen Know we’ll one day be arm in arm again ‘Neath the sign, at the Kentish Canteen Oh I can't wait to see ya, And kiss you on yer face Unless you say 'no thankyou', then I'll leave 6 feet of space I'll wrap my arms around you, And squeeze you like a bear, Unless you don't feel ready, then I'll wave from over there Oh when we finally meet again, I'll take you by your hand - And we'll drink hot pints of coffee from machines that cost six grand If you find yourself feeling down my friends Talking once again into a screen Know we’ll one day be arm in arm again Underneath the sign, at the Kentish Canteen So I'll see you at The Junction, or wherever we may be, Or perhaps we’ll be beneath the sign that says Kentish Canteen

Back in the springtime of some forty years ago The sunlight shining in your hair - and in your eyes You smiled at me, I crossed the bar and softly said: I think about you I think about you You taught me love and joy the life I’d never known You were my sunshine boy, and I your summer man I’d hold you close each night to dream and softly say I think about you I think about you I think about you The tree puts on a show, for us I think about you The vibrant flowers grow, for us I think about you And in the autumn blazing, golden red The leaves fall Then in that autumn when the snow began to fall We fled the city chill to find our sanctuary Beneath the cherry tree we stole ourselves away I think about I think about you But while we sheltered all our friends were in the cold The winter felled them in their prime, both men and boys You went to help; I turned away I couldn’t stay I think about you The tree puts on a show, for you I think about you The vibrant flowers grow, for you I think about you And in the autumn blazing, golden red The leaves fall And so for forty years the silence lingered on A pain I couldn’t find the words to overcome ‘Til suddenly you slipped away Now in my autumn as the leaves blaze golden-red Though you are gone I see the beauty through your eyes You smile at me, I hold your hand and softly say I think about you I live without you I live on for you I think about you

They say that all the world's a stage and all of us are merely actors Told exactly where to stand and what to say Every action preordained by someone hiding in the rafters We see a glimpse of heaven as the vessels of the play But heaven didn't have to be so cold Limber up your wings and take those halos off Help me work the room Warm the place up Fill your best cup Dim the lights and grab your makeup Heaven warms to me tonight The say that all the world's a stage and all of us are merely players Faceless mannequins on puppet masters' strings I say the world's a cabaret made interesting by sparks of danger Mixed crew and crowd with no-one waiting in the wings Heaven doesn't have to be so cold Limber up your wings and take those halos off Help me work the room Warm the place up Fill your best cup Dim the lights and grab your makeup Heaven warms to me tonight Strike a match and burn the script up We go off book tonight (Strike up the match Off book tonight) Heaven didn’t have to be so cold And heaven doesn't have to be so cold Limber up those wings and get those halos off Help me work the room Warm the place up Fill your best cup Dim the lights and grab your makeup Heaven warms to me tonight

It’s a long cold sleep on the way Fifty years on ice just to get that pay We venture out, helium mines They sell for millions but we get dimes We’re shipped out twenty thousand times In this long cold sleep It’s a long hard slog day by day Carbon torch in hand, subzero spray Vacuum suited, seals locked Pirate raiders, shotguns cocked But we’re still forced to keep the coffers stocked Before our next long cold sleep (Spoken) The shuttle’s on lockdown to fend off the ‘phage I’ve read my grandchildren’s obituary page I’ve been under for nearly three hundred years But the future is full of your scariest fears Propellant explosion took out my right leg Robotics ain’t covered, they gave me a peg I’m constantly checking and counting my days Til the long cold sleep Hey, oh Yeah, it’s that long cold sleep Hey, ah For that long cold sleep

Can you hear it all around? A hundred thousand marble mouths are singing The smell of rot is sickly sweet Up in the attic slippered feet are swinging round A little blood reaps dividends Pick up your shovel, bring a friend And wager all your virtues on the way So tuck your shirt in, don’t be late The baying mob is at the gate They’re battering the doors down just to hear the music play Roll up roll up and take a ringside seat Come where angels fear to lay their dainty little feet If you get frightened, you go sleep tight While we all wreak sweet havoc in the firelight All ye lonely faithful come And join our pandemonium in splendor Don’t be afraid to lose control Abandon hope, all wayward souls who enter here The fungal blooming through the stone The forest deep with shards of bone all gleaming white Included in the ticket price With foaming mouths and rolling eyes we’ll dine tonight Carry me through golden halls With merry mirrors on the walls And let the drumbeat start to enter in But far from me to disapprove The choir is watching every move Well, what’s the point of hiding when they’re underneath your skin? Roll up roll up and take a ringside seat Come where angels fear to lay their dainty little feet If you get frightened, you go sleep tight While we all wreak sweet havoc in the candlelight Roll up roll up and take a ringside seat Come where angels fear to lay their dainty little feet If you get frightened, you go sleep tight While we all wreak sweet havoc in the firelight (Roll up roll up and watch the flames burn bright) And we’re metamorphosing The moment fast is closing in We all are decomposing into dreams in the moonlight

Life is short So I was told The creeping cold, oh It gets us all And I remind myself to pray For the better days Then they'll come The days bleed into months The months bleed into years My angel The saviour's call The mental wall, oh My last resort And I can't control myself I'm waiting for the day That it's done The days bleed into months I can't remember The days bleed into months The months bleed into years

Live or die CANT RESIST THE FEELING Live or die I'M GOING TO LOSE CONTROL Live or die I'M GONNA HAVE TO TO FEED IT Live or die NOTHING WILL BE ENOUGH Live or die CANT RESIST THE FEELING Live or die I'M GOING TO LOSE CONTROL Live or die I'M GONNA HAVE TO TO FEED IT Live or die NOTHING WILL BE ENOUGH AND I NEED IT AND I NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE AND I NEED IT NOW Unexpected item in bagging area Remove this item before continuing This can now be placed in your bag Clubcard accepted Unexpected item in bagging area Remove this item before continuing This can now be placed in your bag Clubcard accepted And I try And I feel And I try And I feel Alive

Am I dreaming That I'm falling Can I be sleeping When I hit the ground? Taught to perform but taught to be quiet Can't hear the sound of a soul caught on fire Take what you will but leave my desire Cause it's not mine No, it's not mine Spoken Words We condemn attempts to label us as "victims," a term which implies defeat. We are only occasionally "patients," a term which implies passivity. We are "People With AIDS." We have the right to as full and satisfying sexual and emotional lives as anyone else. We have the right to full explanations of all medical procedures and risks, to choose or refuse our treatment modalities... We have the right to quality medical treatment and quality social service provision without discrimination... We have the right to privacy, to confidentiality of medical records, to human respect and to choose who our significant others are. We have the right to die – and to LIVE – in dignity. Spoken words are from the Denver Principles Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_With_AIDS#The_Denver_Principles

They say you grow out of the anger I don’t think that that’s true Just finds its space, adjusts its pace And grows along with you Heading home Time to collect my bones They say you grow into the changes Rattling guts and the restless ache But the vultures still collect their fill Don’t replace anything they take That’s just the truth Said the last days of my youth In the last days of my youth Did I play better, sing better? The last days of my youth Did I waste that precious time? The last days of my youth Did I write better, fight better? The last days of my youth Did I leave my best behind? They say you grow out of the anger Spit and the fire that you knew But listen son, this shit ain’t done Til you’ve seen the whole thing through Oh lord I know Keep your eyes on the carrion crow In the last days of my youth Did I play better, sing better? The last days of my youth Did I waste that precious time? The last days of my youth Did I write better, fight better, love better, fuck better? Twenty-one Thought I was a grown man Like anyone Though I was my own man But I was just a kid who didn’t understand Life cannot be held in the palm of your own hand In the last days of my youth Did I play better, sing better? The last days of my youth Did I waste that precious time? The last days of my youth Did I write better, fight better? The last days of my youth Did I leave my best behind? In the last days of my youth I have come to understand That I never lost who I was, I’m just finding out who I am In the last days of my youth I have come to understand That I never lost who I was, I’m still finding out who I am In the last days of my youth I have come to understand That I never lost who I was, I’m still finding out who I am In the last days of my youth I have come to understand That I never lost who I was, I’m still finding out who I am In the last days of my youth I have come to understand That I never lost who I was, I’m still finding out who I am

Song of the birds Sound of the trees Don’t know what’s worse Are they happy for me? I don’t know A tangled mess of feelings coming home Song of the birds Flight of the bees Do you think they can tell They are better than me? I don’t know A tangled mess of secrets all alone And maybe if I had cared... I’d cry for nature Find its father Hold your weary head. But fight or founder, Done or doer I’m stuck here instead Song of the birds Voice of the weak Do they pretend they’re in it for me? I don’t know, And know I’ve let the seasons come and go And maybe if I had cared… I’d cry for nature Find its father Hold your weary head But fight or founder, Done or doer I’m stuck here instead Silent strangers fight for meaning, silent neighbours long for healing // Song of the birds, voice of the deep, song of the birds, voice of the deep // Hear me a little, hush me a little, find me a little, lose me a little // Song of the birds Sound of the trees Don’t know what’s worse Are they happy for me? I don’t know A tangled mess of feelings coming home. And maybe if I had cared… Hear me a little, hush me a little, find me a little, lose me a little // I’d cry for nature Find its father Calm your weary head But fight or founder, Done or doer I’m stuck here instead

Mida was a gunner's girl, she worked across the bay But her soul was the soul of a wanderer and she couldn't bear to stay So she went to the men with the clipboard and she signed away her name And they put her in a boat and so a soldier she became Well, Mida fought and Mida killed a hundred times or more Until she could no longer bear the wretched woe of war And as she fled they shot her engines out of all control And sent her off a-spinning down the throat of the black hole And oh - all the things that are waiting quietly To snare unwary wanderers across the writhing sea And oh - as she tumbled into the maw below The gravity did crush her bones Her screams did echo all alone And so another farer never found her way back home (le-vi-a-thee, le-vi-a-thay, le-vi-a-thu, le-vi-a-thorr) A highwayman was Leonard Boule, and a villain’s soul had he He wandered round the Quadrant seeking fattened ships to thieve You’d never see him coming til he shot across your bow And cried, “Stand and deliver, lubbers, look who’s laughing now!” Well Leonard Boule did one day bite off more than he could chew The ship it was deserted and plague-ridden through and through Infection swept the mizzen, killed the engines from inside Left Leonard Boule a-drifting towards the ever waiting Eye And oh - all the things that are waiting quietly To snare unwary wanderers across the writhing sea And oh - as he tumbled into the maw below The gravity did crush his bones His screams did echo all alone And so another farer never found his way back home (le-vi-a-thee, le-vi-a-thay, le-vi-a-thu, le-vi-a-thorr) Vikinger was an orphan kid, from a world of blackened skies They stole aboard a cryo ship, for they had no wish to die A million years in stasis to a paradise for men But the navcomp shat the bed and brought them all back home again Vikinger cursed, Vikinger swore as Urbworld orphans can And overrode the navcomp with a manual hyper-plan They sailed another million, but the target they did miss For the stars had drifted rim-wards and they fell into the abyss And oh - all the things that are waiting quietly To snare unwary wanderers across the writhing sea And oh - as they tumbled into the maw below The gravity did crush their bones Their screams did echo all alone And so another farer never found their way back home (le-vi-a-thee, le-vi-a-thay, le-vi-a-thu, le-vi-a-thorr) Now gather round you children while I sing of Henry Toon A pacifist and medic from a war-scarred Jovian moon He journeyed to a rimworld when the fighting all was done And met his true love Vincent ‘neath an unfamiliar sun Now briefly they were happy in the cottage they had made But Henry’s trauma lingered; savage screams from warriors’ graves Their voices wouldn’t leave him; they wouldn’t let him flee Til Henry found eternal peace in the singularity And if you look you'll see them still, a-glinting in the night Hanging at the precipice at the very edge of sight What lies beyond that veil of black where time itself draws thin? There's only a few souls who know and it's for them we sing: And oh - all the things that are waiting quietly To snare unwary wanderers across the writhing sea And oh - as they tumble into the maw below The gravity will crush their bones Their screams will echo all alone And so another farer never found their way back home (le-vi-a-thee, le-vi-a-thay, le-vi-a-thu, le-vi-a-thorr)

I don’t need to know, When this will end Because I’m just stuck With my best friend And all of these changes, They don’t mean a thing Cos I’m stuck, here with you Pretty good, I’d say wouldn’t you? And every time we change what we are I feel a little bit stronger Could this be something good? I can’t help thinking that I somehow got it better than most When we drew these straws For just living indoors I got you Pretty good, I’d say wouldn’t you? And every time we change what we are I feel a little bit stronger Could this be something good? And I’ll stay in this s h e d This freezing cold shed in the evening Just to finish a song for you For you