Dreams of a Life Page #5

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"Oh, he's a very nice chap."

And I'd just go,

"Oh, my God. Here we go.

"'You don't understand."

'She just took them

as all being very friendly.'

'Underneath it all

I think she was a bit of a minx.

'I think she was a bit naughty.

You didn't see that much of it.

'But there were gaps in her personality

that you could see.

'She wasn't one of those people

'that made girls in a crowd

feel uncomfortable

'by irting with men.'

I think she was just very aware

of the fact that she was pretty.

She was full of life

and therefore attractive.

'She didn't need

to do any more than that.'

'I don't think there was

a man on earth that didn't turn his head.

She would attract attention

and just become the complete focus

and it was hard to get rid of men.

'They wouldn't take no for an answer.

'You just had to sit back

and watch it happen.'

'She was the kind of person

that you would imagine

'ending up with Jay-Z,

Quincy Jones, a big, big name.'

When I was going out with her,

she told me

that the drummer

in Culture Club had asked her out.

She said, "I said no."

'I said, "Oh, thanks!"

'You assumed that people

better looking and younger than you

'were having a better time.'

You'd just see someone and think,

"I'll bet they're out all the time,

having a great life."

'She was quite mysterious.

'She could drift in and out

of situations and friendships

'Not easily,

but she would just not be there.

'Sometimes you wouldn't see her

for six months.'

'I always got the feeling

she was a bit of a drifter.

We didn't see her all the time.'

'I remember once we were supposed

to go off to some dinner.

'And she said, "Oh, I can't go.

'She'd been out the night before.

'I thought she'd been out

with some other bloke, you know.

'But she said,

"Oh, no, it was nothing."'

I didn't fully believe it,

to tell you the truth.

'She was quite secretive.

I think she wasn't clear.

'She would say, "I'm off clubbing."

I don't think it was with Martin.

'So I'm not sure

who she was going with.'

'I don't think

he was seeing anybody else

'but they didn't seem

to spend their whole time together.

'You'd ask Martin

if he was going out with her.

'He wouldn't answer you directly

so you wouldn't really know.'

If you're in a close-knit bunch of friends,

things are bound to happen

because you're all of the same...

You have similar

tastes and interests

and that often extends to girls as well.

So if something happens,

something happens, doesn't it?

By Martin's own admission,

he's no oil painting.

'He's a nice bloke

but he's not the tallest of chaps.

'They were an odd couple.'

'William was

in Hemel Hempstead

and he'd split up with his girlfriend

'I said,

"Oh, it's no good moping around.

'Why don't you come up to London?"

"There'll be three girls there and me.

It will be a bit claustrophobic."

'I managed

to persuade him to come up.'

I think William did like her, yeah.

William had a series of girlfriends

and they were all good-looking

'because he was a good-looking lad

in his youth, you know.'

Probably still is.

Sunday lunch, lovely day.

The crescent is a gorgeous crescent.

I was surprised

that it was such a lovely place to live.

'A lot of alcohol drunk,

a lot of alcohol.

'And we all got quite drunk.'

I remember her not drinking much.

Maybe a couple of glasses of wine

and that was usually enough for her.

She got a little bit silly on more.

I don't know if Joyce or William

went off to the loo or something.

'She was quite a head-turner.

Just very beautiful

and very unusual to look at.

I just thought, "Oh, blooming cheek!

"I'm inviting him up here

and he wants to snog her."

'I reckon I was a bit...

well, very jealous, shall we say,

'and well pissed off.'

I was shouting and he said, "Hit me.

"I realise I've done wrong. Hit me."

So I did, well and truly.

'My hand really did hurt.'

And I didn't realise

I'd hurt him a lot as well,

which I'm not exactly proud of.

And that was probably

the last time I saw her.

I don't think

Martin was going out with her then.

"The following morning my face

was all swollen up and misshaped.

"My work colleagues were surprised

that little Martin,

whom some of them had met,

had done it."

Oh, dear.

Dear oh dear. Terrible, isn't it?

And now we do the spice.

'I think they split up

a couple of times maybe.

'But I don't know the reasons

why they split up. I've no idea.

'He wasn't particularly happy

that they had.

'But I got the impression

it was from his end rather than hers. '

I can't remember any specific day,

when we said, "Well, that's it."

It just sort of drifted apart really.

I think maybe he'd have liked it

to have worked properly.

I don't know why it didn't.

We never discussed it.

'I do remember some occasions

of some black people saying,

'"What are you doing

going out with a white honky?"'

She never went out

with black guys that I knew of

but I couldn't tell you

who she actually went out with.

Her interest was normally

in kind of office types,

sort of English guys.

Martin was the only one I met

and he wasn't what

I would have expected for Joyce.

'I would have expected somebody

taller, slimmer, really handsome.

'But then she was always

within this black-white...

"'Should he black?

Should he be white?"'

We used to be amused,

Catherine and I.

We used to joke with her

that she should get a black one.'

It was always,

'What you need is a good black man.

"You just haven't found the right one."

I used to tell her,

"You've had a lot of boyfriends.

"Now you've finally got a man."

# I just wanna

# I wanna spend some time with you #

'Alistair used to chase Joyce

at the beginning in the early days.'

When he first met her,

he saw this woman

and he thought,

'Wow, that is a babe of note!"

We slept together for almost a month

and I didn't touch her.

I wasn't going to make the first move.

But he chased and chased and chased.

Alistair's one of those tenacious types.

And I remember afterwards

she told me

she'd said to one of her friends,

"Do you think he's gay?"

# I just wanna

# I wanna spend some time with you #

'The first time I met Joyce

was late 1989

'at a club called Xenon.'

'Xenon was

a very popular watering hole for us

'where we used to club a lot.'

Daily basis.

You know how pop stars...

I was a kind of pop star in those days.

'I used to go to a lot of clubs because

I was trying to promote my music.'

So when I walked in the club

the DJ said,

"We have Alton Edwards in the house."

On goes the song.

And I'd phone him up and say,

"I'm coming down to the club

with 10 or 20 people."

And when my friends arrived,

"I'm with Alton Edwards."

'Alistair was a music manager.

'In those days

he used to manage Osibisa.

'It was an African group.

'And he used to manage people

like Isaac Hayes, Gil Scott-Heron.

'You know, some big names.'

I had an artist, Betty Wright,

who I worked with.

'I remember Betty and her

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