Once I knew a fellow, during the time I lived in Hackney, called Crocky Melodeon Grimes who came from Currabawn where the idea of a joke was saying to someone: 'Did you see such-and-such going around the place without me?'
Well, anyway, Crocky wore an Afghan and stank to high heaven of patchouli, physically not unlike Vincent Crane, the virtuoso keyboard wizard responsible for cascades of arpeggios in ‘The Great Spontaneous Apple Creation' by Arthur Brown (The Crazy World Of),
In any case, one night I met Crocky in a Wimpey on Commercial Road and I have to admit that he looked the worse for wear. An impression confirmed when he handed me a rosary bead box full of Mandrax and said, as he tugged the sleeve of my jacket, 'I can't stop now. For I've just seen myself going by on a bus… gotta run, man!'
And as far as I know, Crocky spent the night in pursuit of the 94 bus but whether he did catch up with it or not, and by extension himself, I never did really get to find out.
But he was a nice fellow, Crocky - great on the melodeon-especially with Red Biddy & The Gander - and of course his trademark ‘Gimpy Mc Gonagle's Nose’.