Private Plane
Late January 1986. I'm in a Computer Studies lesson in Stanwell School, Penarth. We've crawled up all the stairs to the computer suite at the top of the Old Block, we're exhausted and cold because the heating isn't working, and we're waiting for our teacher Mrs Mulrooney to appear.
Now I always got on well with Mrs Mulrooney. Over the years she'd taught me science, maths and computer studies, and had been my form teacher for a few years. Whereas other lads were fancying the female PE mistresses or the young exotic French teacher, I had a bit of a crush on Mrs Mulrooney. There was something mumsy about her, those chunky knitted jumpers, the casual trousers, it seemed she didn't really care what she wore, it was functional and practical.
So on that day in January 1986, when she walked into the classroom in a smart dark blue skirt, blouse and blazer - a suit, basically - we were all a bit shocked. But only one person put that shock into words. From the back of the classroom, Mike shouted out
"Hey miss, where's your private plane?"
And that one sentence triggered this song. I immediately made a mental note of the line and let it simmer in my mind. There was this music I had which needed words. Obviously the song wasn't going to be about Mrs Mulrooney, I developed the music by messing around in my bedroom with my brother's guitar. I knew precisely three chord shapes. D, F and A. In the verse I played D and moved it up the frets for E and F, then the A shape raised up the frets for the bridge. Chorus alternating F and A shapes next to each other... It was simple. So I made a simple recording bouncing between two tape decks. Casio VL tone drum box, Roland sh3a bass, badly played guitar, and vocal. Probably two tape bounces. And a cheeky ABBA quote at the end. The words were written quickly as I recorded it. It was the first track on a Sony chrome tape in a green case, alongside other songs which got split into two EPs. But "Private plane" was the first song and was recorded on 10th February 1986.
Oh yeah EPs... In 1984 and 1985 I had branded all my tapes under the nominal label "Industrial Beat Music Records". Or IBM for short. 1986 was a fresh start, new year new label. Say hello to Mangled Tapes. The three best songs from the February sessions were collected on one C12 tape and became "Three for all", catalogue number Mangled 1.
Hear the February 86 "Private plane" here
Everyone seemed to like "Three for all". The biggest fan was Dave Blake. Dave was the leader of Final Ecstasy, a band he formed in 1984 alongside my brother on guitar and Robin on bass. They were all in the year above me in school, so by the time I'd recorded "Private plane" they were in the upper sixth form. It was also around this time that Dave heard my songs, kicked my brother out and installed me as keyboard player and singer. There was some story about Dave winning the pools underage which is why he had a load of money, a car, a pile of guitars, a PA in his bedroom... Anyway, Final Ecstasy as a trio rehearsed our set of five songs every Saturday from February to April 1986, alternating between my parents, Robin's house and Dave's house. At one rehearsal James Corrigan sang for us but refused to come along to another rehearsal because it clashed with a rugby international. A harbinger of his future career. At another rehearsal a drummer called Paul came along and it got very very loud. The rest of the time we thrashed away. At our final rehearsal at the end of April, we were at Dave's house so I somehow plugged my tape deck into his PA and managed to record our five songs. Dave had the master tape, I made a copy. The first song of the set was "Private plane".
It's an odd recording. It's fast, my VL-Tone bashing away. Robin makes a bum note within a few seconds of starting. Dave is alternatively wailing a wild solo or chugging. Half the time he seems to be waiting for something to happen. And I'm upfront, screaming my head off with a punkish sneer, playing the lead line on the Roland and hammering chords on the MT45. It's wild. It's loud. It's here if you want to hear it.
After that "Private plane" became "that good song I wrote". When I played my first gig in September 1991, it was my opening song. It attracted enough attention then to get casual punters to listen. Shame I somehow taped over the rehearsal recording from a few days before. Damn.
I kind of forgot about "Private plane" after that. I certainly wasn't thinking about recording it again.
Then in Feb 2024 I started playing around with a different drum VSTi with some new drum patterns and fills. Initially the drum programs I came up with were meant for "Million words". Then I played this pulsing bassline and had a sequence of fifths on a synth. And somehow it turned into "Private plane". A few guitar overdubs later, a few lyrical amendments (millionaires are so last century) including a careful adjustment of the Abba lift, and here we are. There's a moment where it threatens to turn into "I predict a riot" but I don't mind that. A morality tale for our times. Thanks Mrs Mulrooney.
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