23:25
Here we are, sat around Vanessa’s table somewhere in a flat in the nicer part of Edinburgh. Mark, to my right, is playing a banjo. To my left, Vanessa is doing the same. Signe is playing acoustic and singing. Peter’s head is lulling in silent comprehension. Steph is playing a game on the iPad. Mark says things like, ‘there’s only three strings I am comfortable with’. Peter is not comfortable at all with the banjo and chooses not to play. ‘[Level] 27’, Steph says. Vanessa is singing this:
Cool, she says, when she’s finished. I am looking the most tired of us all. Peter is not far behind. The girls and Mark are fine. ‘You’re not helping’, Signe says, when Mark interferes with her and Vanessa harmonising. Peter is rocking and smiling now. Steph is going for something higher than level 27. Everyone is laughing, or smiling, Vanessa says to Mark, ‘take it away’! Peter says, ‘not too far there, Chico’! Mark is an amateur, doing his best, but is now being called a pedestrian bastard. Everytime he fucks up they all laugh. Peter says, ‘that’s cool, that’s hot, man’.
Peter is back with his harmonica and guitar and a tumbler of whisky. This shit just got real.
