A GUEST SERIES

36. Robinson Crusoe – Cud (1990 Imaginary Records)

Released as a single in October 1990 (Reached Number 86)

More OPG today and a slightly extended mix of an old story that some of you will know.

Cud were for a long time, until she fully embraced the long hair and muscle Tshirts of bands like Soul Asylum and Soundgarden, her favourite band of all time.

‘Leggy Mambo’ was a record that we sorted of bonded over and in a daft kind of way ‘Robinson Crusoe’ is a song that I will always associate with her. Largely because after watching her dance to it in a pub in Chatham I could think of little else for an entire summer. It that’s simple. It’s not even a great song, to be honest the best bit is near the end when it sounds like a digital watch alarm gets set off by mistake in the background. The B Side if I remember rightly had a Nightmares on Wax remix of ‘Robinson Crusoe’ but I don’t have it, which is a shame because I think it was quite good.

In 1992, I went to see Cud (supported by The Family Cat) with OPG at a legendary London venue called The Town and Country Club. It ended badly with us splitting up on the platform of Kentish Town Tube Station, after we’d had a row in the pub before the gig (it was over musical differences – seriously). It also saw OPG get arrested for assault (after the gig)

She barely spoke to me the entire gig – Cud finished the gig with a rousing version of ‘Purple Love Balloon’ and filled the room with purple balloons and told everyone to “Go Home and Make Babies”.

Purple Love Balloon

OPG grabbed a balloon and smiled at me, I thought at the time, that maybe the row had been forgotten. It was the kind of smile that made my knees buckle.

We strolled back to the tube station and went down the escalator to the platform, half way down a bloke in a suit came charging down the escalator and pushed us out the way. He obviously wanted to catch the train and was running late, but he was out of order.

In the process of this OPG’s Purple Balloon got burst and she went absolutely mental. She charged after the suit and grabbed him on the platform and punched him in the face. I arrived to see blood on the floor, a scared looking commuter, and two burly looking security guards jogging up the platform.

OPG looked at me as I stood in the corridor between the Northern Line Up and Down and she said “This is all your fault” just before the guards grabbed her. To bemused faces I turned and walked on to the other platform and jumped on the first tube to anywhere. I spent the night at my uncle’s flat in Waterloo (after a midnight call to him) and I didn’t speak to OPG for around a year.

SWC

JC adds..…

I’ve gone digging again.

mp3 : Cud – Robinson Crusoe (Friday mix – Nightmares on Wax)

and just to add…..for those of you who don’t know, most London Underground stations, including Kentish Town, broadcast a pre-recorded three-word message in terms of public safety, warning passengers to be careful when boarding or alighting a train.   One of Cud’s better known songs is named after said safety warning

mp3 : Cud – Mind The Gap (Peel session version)