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MUSIC IS THE FOOD OF LOVE..........

This time next week I’ll be at Basra International Airport. Don’t be fooled by the name though. It’s not air-conditioned, BA don’t fly there and there’s definitely no Tie Rack or Sock Shop. I was last there a little under a year ago, in the midst of the biggest invasion since June 6^th 1944.

So with an impending stint as part of the on-going effort to restore something like democracy to Iraq, today was ideal for one final blast in the F. I should have been doing other stuff like mothballing my fridge and packing bags but it was too perfect. Bright and sunny but a bit chilly. I dropped the roof and headed to Guildford for some last minute shopping, then took off down the A3 to cut across to Midhurst and on towards West Sussex to see the folks before departing overseas again, a ritual with which I’m becoming a little too familiar. I slipped a CD in the stereo to up the ante: the album “Fallen” by Arkansas-based group ‘Evanescence’ and their song “Bring Me to Life”. Best saved for solo drives it’s heavy stuff indeed, and not my usual choice but surprisingly melodic for a band at the rockier end of the musical sea-front. Try it at a karaoke party and you’ll definitely be reaching for the Benylin. Think ‘Britney Spears-meets-Jon Bon Jovi’, the lead vocalist, one Amy Lee (who actually has a quite stunning voice), sings angst-ridden and dark power-ballads of lost love, being alone and how yesterday was somehow better. At face value a little depressing but for someone about to bid farewell to their car for two months it was just right and the heavy black eye-liner of the F’s Trophy headlights compounded the slightly Gothic overtones of the music.

“Wake me up inside, Wake me up inside,

Call my name and save me from the dark,

Bid my blood to run, before I come undone

Save me from the nothing I’ve become…

…Bring me to life”

True, it’s a bit dark and a little sinister but as the lyrics shouted out of the speakers it was like the F talking to me, begging me not to leave next week, and certainly not so soon after this first real drive of the year on a day perfect for soft-tops. My Landrover project has been hogging most of my time recently, and with poor weather too, the MG has been somewhat left to herself in the garage and it was as if she was a bit miffed, like a girlfriend ignored in preference for football. Today’s blast, well, it was a bitter-sweet apology, appreciated but just not quite enough to compensate.

Our progress through wild-looking woodland was slowed by a plain beige Mercedes van, loafing along at less than 30mph. The song rang in my ears….“Save me from the nothing I’ve become” and with that I dropped a gear and stormed past the delivery van. Roaring through small Sussex villages just awakening from winter, the car too was returning to life after near-hibernation along damp, rough country lanes with sweeping race track curves or sharp, unexpected rally-car bends and bunny-hop bridges. With watery sun flickering through the tangled, overhanging branches the needle on the revcounter was flung to the “5” mark and beyond, the exhaust howling against grating guitar chords and crashing drums.

Over the next nine weeks we’ll miss a couple of other excellent days out and I think this accounted for the underlying anguish matched so perfectly by the music. One airfield day and a couple of track days at Brands Hatch and Silverstone. The repeat of the line “Wake me up inside…” somehow reminded me the car would no doubt revel in being let loose on track again. Whilst a progressive road drive is one thing, a circuit drive is something else all together. Maybe it was my choice of CD, or the undoubted anxiety of returning to a country in disarray, but sprinting across picturesque Southern meadows whilst the song implied an unfulfilled release from a distant yet dreary underworld, it felt like the car has become a bit possessed by a shady, slightly more demanding racetrack alter-ego, not fully satisfied by even the most spirited daily driving.

Returning the car to it’s garage just after dark, I could still hear echoes of the powerful voice of Amy Lee and her Evanescence songsters.

“Call my name and save me from the dark” she sang, and lowering the garage door it was as if the car wanted the same thing.

“Bring me to life”…and I will, just as soon as I’m home.