Songs that saved your life, part 7

We all do daft things when we're young, don't we? Y'know, we paint our room black, we backcomb our hair, we smoke and swallow things that aren't particularly good for us, and we think that Ned's Atomic Dustbin will save the world.

Well, I carried on doing some stupid things well into my late 20s, and especially around the early part of this decade, when I decided that I'd mess quite a few people's lives about by being a selfish bastard, and, really, having some kind of early mid-life crisis.

My soundtrack to this tomfuckery was, amongst other things, 'Summer Snow' by The Windmills. The Windmills were from Essex and were headed up by professional miserabalist, Roy Thirwell. The band were one of the stars of the years of Matinee Records, and by the time of their second album, 'Now is Then' they were all but finished.

Now is then was recorded over seven years, apparently. And it showed. Some of the tracks were slushy and sentimental; the others were hard-nosed and bitter, especially 'Summer Snow', which sort of perfectly summed up my state of mind at the time.

For reasons I would rather not go into
I don't want to see you
Don't ask why

Half of what I feel is filled with hatred
The rest is too complicated
Don't ask why

Oh, it all got a bit nasty all right. And in the background was a driving, Echo and the Bunnymen-style piece of music that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. And they don't just stand up for any old thing, I'll have you know. 'Summer Snow' is what I used to play over and over again as I travelled on buses all over the place, pretending the whole world had taken against me. What a pillock.

Eventually, I got over the fact that I was approaching 30, and settled into life. I think (hope) everyone else did, too. The Windmills went missing not long after and have never resurfaced. Thirlwell released an album as Melodie Group, which was cute enough, but for pure bile and that feeling that you can connect with a perfect song at a not so perfect time, then it was hard to beat The Windmills' finest three and half minutes.

You can download Summer Snow at their Matinee page.