Three And A Half Minutes, you must be exaggerating

david1170
6 days ago
3 min read

Alex Boucher, the drummer of Three And A Half Minutes, Travis Cut, NV and Jaff, and also the author of the superb look back at the nineties music scene that is ‘Three and a half minutes of fame’ has sent us his latest update, and although it is mainly personal stuff, (all the book-related promo will be at the end) it does seem that the travel gods have got it in for him this year…

“My flight home from San Francisco was impacted by the Heathrow Airport fire, which meant the plane had to do a U-turn 5 hours into the flight, and take us back to SF.

We landed at 2am, didn’t get into the provided hotels until 4am, I managed about 2 hours of anxiety-fuelled sleep, then spent the next 24 hours figuring out how to get home.

With Virgin offering a return flight 4 FRICKIN’ DAYS LATER, I sorted my own way home, which ended up being a flight to Paris, then to Gatwick, followed by a taxi to Heathrow to pick up my car, then a jet-lagged drive home to North East Essex…

To add insult to injury, a short break to Malaga the following month was timed with a complete power outage of the whole country, ending with a nail-biting delayed wait on the runway, praying the flight would leave before all our phones ran out of battery. This finished with yet another 2am arrival, and a bleary-eyed drive home.

So, I’m really looking forward to more air travel this year… (Lanzarote & Vancouver if you’re interested)

Anyway, what else? A week after the Spanish debacle, I received a letter in the post which was quite surreal/life-changing/momentous/exciting - I can’t tell you the contents of this until after the 14th of June. There is a clue in this post for any sleuths willing to decipher what this could be regarding.

Music related news - I am getting obsessed with dub music at the moment, and picking up any vinyl I see that has the words “Dub” emblazoned on the cover; my highlights so far have been records by King Tubby, Lee “Scratch” Perry and Scientist.

Going back to my roots, I’m very excited to see Nine Inch Nails at the O2 in a couple of weeks too! I think this may be the 10th time I’ve seen them since 1994.

Finally, some book-related stuff:

For of those of you that have read the book, ‘Three and a half minutes of fame’, some NV related news…

Carl turned 50 in April, so a surprise birthday was planned for him at his parent’s house in Bishop’s Stortford. I’ve not seen him since 2022, so this was going to be a nice and timely catchup. However, for those of you that know Carl, he’s not the most punctual, so 3 hours later, everyone has given up hiding behind the sofa, and I had to head home, so I didn’t get to congratulate the birthday boy in person, or even do our “Keep on Loving” routine for Auntie Doris and cousin Kevin (these names are made up, and used purely for comedic purposes).

Some sad news came a month later, when Matt’s mum Clodagh Rodgers passed away. They held her funeral 2 weeks ago and I watched the livestream - Matt gave a beautiful, tear-filled eulogy, I wish I could have been there to give him a hug. RIP Clodagh!