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» TMO Talk » The Dead » It's Go West Friday (Page 2)

 
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Author Topic: It's Go West Friday
London

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It's the kind of thing that would sit very well in, say, a pop culture fanzine or website.
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London

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*wink*
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kovacs

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Part Five Point Five in a Fold-Out Folly: Collect the Set then Tape Them Together and Turn it Over You Will Find You Have a Big Go West Poster


If you had been in London's Docklands during September 1989 you might have seen two fit and crisply-dressed men travelling from Limehouse to Mudchute. The first was tall, with neatly-cropped sandy hair; the second sported a trendy cut, longer at the back and wavy, short on top. They wore clothes -- a crisp white shirt, untucked into Levi's 501s, for the first guy, and his companion wore a black vest.

The Docklands Light Railway sped past silver buildings, symbols of Thatcherite excess and corporate power from that age, as the two men wrestled with their friendship.

Other passengers couldn't believe it. For this was Peter Cox and Richard Drummie, lead singer/vocals/keyboard and guitarist/backing vocals/keyboard in Go West. And they were on this train!


Part Five: End of the Dream?


"You what?" exclaimed the shorter man with the brunette cut...Richard Drummie. When he grew angry, Peter knew, Richard reverted to his South London roots. They had drawn on that in the "Call Me" video. Now it just sounded angry.
"The whole album's been scrapped, mate. Not just the album, the movie."
Richard hadn't heard a word beyond the word "mate". His eyes screwed up in contempt.
"Some mate you are," he returned bitterly, then spat "mate", with sarcasm.
(reconstruction of the talk they had, Sept 1989)


Willis' film had been literally blown "out of the water" since that legendary meeting on Venice Beach, with Peter.

Planned meticulously around a thriller attack on a cruise ship, Die Hard II had been scuppered by the release of Steven Seagull's film Under Siege, based around the same premise.

Willis was furious, and vowed to ruin Seagall's career...a boast that would come true in the 1990s, as the other man's role as a martial-arts action hero floundered, and Willis' soared with brave choices at the box office, like Twelve Monkeys.

But Peter was left without a movie -- without a soundtrack. For what was a movie with no soundtrack, and vice versa? That evening he sat in his apartment, alone. Richard was in town, hitting the clubs -- he'd said he was going "out...just out, OK!" -- and Peter was cross-legged on the floor, flipping playing cards into an upturned hat, with a desultory movement.

Then, he took a bouncy ball and tossed it against one white-painted wall, catching it on the rebound...changing hands, and throwing it again. And again.

A neon light from a wall outside cast garish flickering colour into the otherwise-dark apartment. Then it began to rain, and the windows were beaded with droplets so that Peter appeared out of focus, then the focus changed and you could see him through the pane.

He put on "Goodbye Girl", on repeat...CD format. Then, suddenly, he turned it off from across the room, using a remote control. He would use those songs. He wouldn't let the band down! He could just retitle them, and the album, and give it all new names. New cover pictures...the works.

It came true, and the next album from Go West was called Indian Summer.


Not many people bought it, but Peter owned a copy, and it always reminded him of his time with Bruce...Bruce Willis.

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member #28


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kovacs

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Seriously, if anyone wants this crap they can have it!

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member #28

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London

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ta!
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kovacs

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Can I get a credit for it or something.

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member #28

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London

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Obviously. What do you want it to say? Want a cute / hott photo?
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kovacs

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I should email you about this so as not to disrupt my thread. Where can I reach you now.


Hurrah it's now Go West Friday at last, and my thread will be on "active topics" all day!

[ 15 August 2003: Message edited by: kovacs ]

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member #28


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London

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[ 15 August 2003: Message edited by: London ]


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kovacs

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It was easier doing my History when I thought everyone was ignoring it. More tomorrow though!

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member #28

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Bamba

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Edited to preserve...something.

[ 15 August 2003: Message edited by: Bamba ]


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69 Comeback Elvis
Skank Ho
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lol

I didn't expect the Bruce Willis chapter. I like honest homosexuality.


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kovacs

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let's edit out this argument.

[ 15 August 2003: Message edited by: kovacs ]

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member #28


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kovacs

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Part 6 and Final Epilogue in The Secret History of Go West

It was the end of the consumerist 1980s -- December 1989, precisely -- and all around the country, people were preparing for a new era.

Style magazines proclaimed that all the accountrements of the capitalist "me" decade were now "OUT", and yuppie businessmen cleared out their offices and loft apartments to make way for the fresh set of values of the 90s. "Cats" were OUT..."Dogs"...IN. That symbolised the move from selfishness to a generous attitude in what people like Peter York were already dubbing, "the we decade."

In his Docklands warehouse conversion, one man was packing the accessories of the 1980s into a series of packing chests and tea boxes. The mobile phone...he raised a crooky smile...he'd had some good times with that...the parties at the Limelight and other discos..."nah", it could go. With a wry look he tossed it into the chest on top of The Face magazine and the empty bottles of champagne from all the wild parties.

Then he went to the high window and looked out over the street at the darkening sweep of London. Tonight would be the night. His name was Peter Cox, and he was lead singer in the band

Later, backstage at his New Year's gig at Brockwell Park, Herne Hill, Peter sat opposite his friend and colleague, Richard Drummie. Preparing for the 90s look, Richard had a new cropped hairdo, and was wearing a space-age white shirt with matching trousers, and a funky silver transfer of a baby on the front of the shirt. He looked different, Peter thought...but good. Yet the thought only peeked into his mind, because he was concerned with work right now.

"I've got a new song I want to sing, Ritch'," Peter began, holding a sheet of paper in one hand. He cleared his throat.
Richard looked puzzled. "New material, mate? Now?"
Peter smiled at the reassurance that the two were still friends, but he knew this was something he couldn't tell even to Richard.
"Trust me..." and a hand reached out to touch Richard's shoulder. "I have to do this."

Half an hour later, and GO WEST were performing some of their marvellous music to an appreciative crowd. "Don't Look Down" had opened the set, followed by "SOS" and some newer, less accessible material from Dancing on the Couch. The audience had dampened a little during slower and more ambitious numbers like "From Baltimore to Paris", but when Peter took the mic and announced that it was about The King and Mrs Simpson, there was a wave of applause that started patchily at the back and grew steadily until it reached a roar of acclaim at the front, by the stage.

"Now I'd like to try a new number," Peter announced, and he felt his fingers shake on the guitar. He glanced at Richard, and his colleague began to play the song they had discussed, although Richard wasn't even sure what it was. Like a professional, he found himself knowing the chords...instinctively.

Peter launched into the soulful vocal style that had always been too good for chart pop, and soon he was blasting out these lines:

quote:
Outside, I'm masquerading
Inside, my heart is fading
I'm just a clown
Since you put me down
My smile is my makeup
I wear since my breakup with you

He looked at Richard again, and the band fell silent. They all knew something was going down. Peter had written the song "Masque of Love" only a few years ago, and by choosing this song he was clearly continuing that lyrical theme. But why? They only knew it was something to do with the bond between the two frontmen.

As those long moments dragged out and the London crowd gazed at the band in uneasy wonder, Richard's mind raced. Make-up...that could just be a theatrical thing, but it was also associated with, well, gays. But Peter wasn't a gay, was he? Suddenly a flickering montage of images ran through Richard's head...Peter's hand on his shoulder...the lyrical reference to gay club Brief Encounter in "Masque of Love"...the ambiguity in all his songs except "Goodbye Girl"...the weekends away with Bruce, and Mike Cashman. Peter was...gay?

Peter was looking across the stage at Richard with searching eyes. The two men stared at each other, expressions locking in communication, then comprehension. It seemed like minutes had passed in uncanny silence. Then Richard's fingers moved; he grasped the neck of his guitar and found the chord. With a smile, he continued the song where they'd broken off, and stepped up to his own mic to join Peter on backing vocals.

Peter stared, then his face broke into a grin. The words blasted from him on a tide of relief and gratitude, and he heard Richard, his friend and partner in music, coming in to harmonise with him.

quote:
Baby, baby, take a good look at my face
You see my smile looks out of place
If you look closer it's easy to trace
The tracks of my tears

Peter Cox was crying. But they were tears of happiness.

the end

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member #28


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Bamba

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quote:
Originally posted by kovacs:
But, and I'm not messing around here, I'm surprised you think that putting someone's hosted pics up on a forum for everyone's judgement is acceptable. You've demonstrated that Boomspeed isn't "private", but it's not so hard to get into Hotmail either, and I don't think anyone would go through your inbox to find amusing or suspect mails for posting on here.

I think you're over reacting. You posted the pictures. The pictures link back to your boom speed account. You seem to imply that I'd somehow 'hacked' into your picture account and revealed to the forum something that was hidden when in fact anyone with a right mouse button could have easily found the same thing. I assumed precisely because you'd had this stuff in the not-even-vaguely-private account from which you'd taken these other pictures that you wouldn't mind me making a light hearted inquiry about them. I have (or will when I finish this) edit out my post because I don't want to piss you off over something so trivial but comparing me hacking your explicitly private Hotmail account (which isn't actually easy to get into and I don't know where you get that idea from) and simply following a link from something you consciously posted up on the forum yourself isn't even a vaguely fair comparison. If you're that worried about stuff like this then I'd use Misc's upload thing in the future which is entirely anonymous but I think here you're inventing a point of net etiquette that has never existed.


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ben

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Pat: I like what Kovacs has done here: following Habermas, he counterposes the traditional idea of an objective cognitive-instrumental (functionalist) reason to other reasoning capacities that perform subjective and intersubjective duties within the rich fabric of societal interactions; in this case, by hijacking key pop-cult icons of the Thatcher-Reagan interregnum and ventriloquising what he suggests might be the homeoerotic subtext to each "iconnarrative".

From the ideas of intersubjectivity developed here, Kovacs might usefully develop a distinctive theory of 80s-into-90s discourse ethics.


Greg: Uh...


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Samuelnorton
"that nazi guy"
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I think we are witnessing the organic creation of Kovacs' new boke.

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"You ate the baby Jesus and his mother Mary!"
"I thought they were animal cookies..."


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69 Comeback Elvis
Skank Ho
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lol@bnE

This thread rocks. In a non-ironic way.


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kovacs

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forget it mate -- you're not worth it

[ 19 August 2003: Message edited by: kovacs ]

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member #28


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Bamba

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quote:
Originally posted by kovacs:
They link back to it if you bother to right-click and c & p the picture properties -- they don't "link to it" as in I invite you to click on the pictures here and visit all my other stored images.

No, there was no nice little link in your posts themselves but, given that it's possible and easy to anonymise yourself here (i.e. posting pics through Misc's upload or using a host that doesn't allow aces to picture folder, only the pictures themselves) I'd read into the situation that you weren't that bothered. Otherwise I would have assumed you'd take either of the measures I outline above.

quote:
Originally posted by kovacs:
I agree, it's not really comparable technically. But Boomspeed is "password protected". Doesn't that imply the idea that this is a personal account?

Two things:

One, having never used boomspeed myself, I had no idea it was password protected so the implication was lost on me. Also, given that they don't protect your actual folders from public view it still wouldn't have given me the idea that this was an account you explicitly wanted kept private.

Two, the above point notwithstanding, password protecting something wouldn't again neccessarily have implied a desire for privacy on your part as the password protection on boomspeed isn't actually designed to do this, only to prevent others from deleting your photos or adding their own and sucking up your allocated space.

quote:
Originally posted by kovacs:

It wasn't a great parallel, but I regarded the Boomspeed box as semi-private, as I would a web email address. It's not so much that you'd be curious and look in that box, but that you felt freely justified in posting up links to the other pix for everyone else to judge. That seems a bit of an ethical leap to me. I don't have a list of netiquette rules to check it againt, but it surprised me.

Because your boomspeed box is open to anyone who looks then I ethically felt that viewing it was the same as viewing the pictures you'd actually posted. As for posting the link up, again I didn't think you'd have a problem with that because anyone else could go and do what I did so pretending otherwise would be doing just that, pretending. I suppose this is the part of your attitude I don't fully understand: this semi-privacy that you mention is basically a pretence, it's not even slightly private* which is why I didn't feel that I was violating anything.

quote:
Originally posted by kovacs:

I appreciate your edit. I would have thought there was some seed of a discussion here, but it seems nobody else agrees with me or feels like commenting.

I was quite happy to edit and I really have no reason or desire to piss you off and my post was meant to be light hearted, not some kind of calculated violation. I would also have been happy to dicuss this as it raises some interesting issues which, with a lot of people lives moving into the electronic realm, are probably only beginning to raise their head but I'm just out of a huge long meeeting so sorry 'bout that. I also hope the online rage you mentioned on another thread has nothing to with my actions and responses here.

*Well, it would be if you weren't posting images on the public internet using it as without that no one else would know if it's existence but you know what I mean.


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discodamage
Again with the bagels ?
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please dont ruin my bestmostfavourite thread with a boring argument.

[ 15 August 2003: Message edited by: discodamage ]

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EXETER- movement of Jah people.


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kovacs

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Well, it's honestly OK Bamba. I was annoyed before but since reading your decent and reasonable explanations, I am no longer annoyed.

edit: I didn't think anyone but me and perhaps London liked this thread.

[ 15 August 2003: Message edited by: kovacs ]

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London

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Yeah but where you and I lead....
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discodamage
Again with the bagels ?
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i was going to tell you on friday that i loved it but then you snogged my boyfriend and i got angry at you.

he says you have 'unusually soft lips for a man', by the way.

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EXETER- movement of Jah people.


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kovacs

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lolol. Probably better that I thought nobody was reading it and even fewer people enjoyed it.

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member #28

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H1ppychick
We all prisoners, chickee-baby.
We all locked in.
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I have been enjoying it; but then again, I do have three Go West albums. I always suspected that, like Peter & Richard, I was more attracted to men than women, and now sadly the musical tastes of my formative years seem to have confirmed this.
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kovacs

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Go West -- the early days

a story from the never-before-told past of the 1980s' most important rock band

A rude awakening

Electricity pulsed through the clock radio. It was a new Casio model and had red digital figures, now showing 7am. A song came on mid-way through, invading the sleeper's dreams.

quote:
lipstick cherry all over the lens, and she's calling!

The sleeper was well up on the charts of the day and he immediately recognised the sounds of Duran Duran's "Girls on Film" single even through his waking haze. Music was his life; in fact, he lived for music. He was just a boy now but soon his name would be Peter Cox.


Grey years

It was a bleak morning in November 1982 when Peter Cox awoke on a day that would change his life. Going back, we can resituate ourselves within that period. Margaret Thatcher had declared battle on the striking miners, under militant leader Arthur Scargill. In Parliament, she frequently came to a head against her opponent, Neil Kinnock, then-leader of the Labour Party and future MEP. The winter of discontent, under Michael Foot, had been swept away with the old decade (1970s) and a new spirit invaded the land -- a spirit of mercenary, can-do money-grabbing. What would be known, even then, as the "me-decade".

Unexpected surprise

Yet the cliches we know from the 1980s, decade of style and fortune, were not yet in place by 1982. Yuppies swigging champagne in London fountains, and glamorously-dressed musicians who made every Top of the Pops into a daring, blazing catwalk were something of years to come. In many ways, the "scene" was more like the dismal late 1970s, with gloomy post-punk bands like U2, The Police and The Jam offering sour-faced anthems for a disenchanted youth.


wild boys: duran were the pioneers

Only a few new faces on the scene held the seeds of glories to come. One of them, we have already met -- on the radio. For Duran Duran were a shocking new outfit who had picked up on the craze for Space Invaders with "Planet Earth" and with sequels like "Girls on Film", really stretched the new medium of music video to its fullest capacity. Another force to deal with was Adam and the Ants, for similar reasons.

New faces, unfamiliar places

But these were the pioneers, the trailblazers. To find the other heroes of the 1980s, we have to look in unexpected places.

Like at the unassuming breakfast table where a young man called Peter was hungrily eating Ready Brek. Still living with his parents, he had a conversation with his mother.

"Mum, I'm planning to go to the Diamond Lights tonight...is that OK?"
"You mean that youth club?" his mum, Mrs Cox, checked. She was a down-to-earth figure, with an accent rough and unassuming as Peter's.
"Yes, that's right," Peter corrected her, earnestly. "I shan't be back too late, OK Mum?"
(imagined chat, circa 1982)

Smile of a friend


wild boy -- peter was an attractive tearaway like this

Outside, Peter took off his school necktie and slipped the loop over his forehead, tightening it gently so it sat like a striped headband. That was better! Now he was an Ant Warrior. He rolled up one sleeve of the white school shirt.


"Alright, Pete!" said a rough voice.
"Tone!" shouted Peter in greeting, holding out a hand for the other to shake.
The boy who strode towards him, palm out, was stocky with a lop of dark hair over one eye in the "heavy-head" style.
Peter hadn't seen his friend since before the weekend, and he looked him in the eye as they clasped hands.
"Well well," he repeated. "Tony Hadley!"
(imagined, based on probable data)

[ 15 August 2003: Message edited by: kovacs ]

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ben

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*kof* T-Tucker?

[ 16 August 2003: Message edited by: ben ]


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Spiderwoman2002
TMO Member
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quote:
Originally posted by kovacs:
The History of Go West -- 3 in a Series




"It wasn't meaningful," Richard said in interview.


I truly loved Go West, I even wrote to Jim O' Fixit about them. But doesn't Richard look like Liza Minelli's recent ex David Guest?


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kovacs

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Your question may be answered -- this Friday.

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member #28

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Spiderwoman2002
TMO Member
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quote:
Originally posted by Spiderwoman2002:
I truly loved Go West, I even wrote to Jim O' Fixit about them. But doesn't Richard look like Liza Minelli's recent ex David Guest?


Why yes! So he does.


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kovacs

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Another question that I won't be obliged to answer on next "Go West Friday".

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