The Importance Of Being Oscar

I met up with Oscar from Colenso Parade the other day. That's the Eighties band from Northern Ireland who took their name from the street near Botanic Gardens, where Sean Rafferty used to live. Not to be confused by the more recent act called Colenso Parade who have also been smitten by the location.

I used to see Oscar quite a bit in the old days. He was a funny guy with a soul full of poetry and a connection to those other tousle-haired Celts, Ian McCullough and Pete Wylie. From what I remember, Wylie and Oscar used to correspond, and the former used to send home-made comic books to our guy. At one stage, the Colenso Parade guitarist was Terry Bickers, a truly eccentric chap who later made his name with the House Of Love and Levitation. I have a foggy remembrance of him bashing out the riffage to 'Down By The Border' at the Rock Garden, causing real astonishment in the crowd.

The band was managed by Dave Bedford, who now works with The Answer. Oscar retired from the singing caper with his dignity intact and a future career in events production in Edinburgh. It was a delight to see him in Belfast. He in turn seemed to find it hilarious that I had a Ruefrex album by the side of my desk. Doesn't everbody have one of those?