Indulge me a bit of history today.
When I published OPUS70 at the beginning of the month, I indicated that I was going to provide a sampler of highly impactful songs stretching over the entire 46 year period I have been indie music mad – tracks from 1979 to today – 70 of them.
Based on the many, many kind comments I have since received, about the playlist, I think I have accomplished that goal.
You might remember though that I indicated that a disproportionate number of songs would come from the early years when the music was new and fresh to me, and given that more impactful.
Here is a strange story about 1 such song that elicits significant memories for me – even today.
The Background
The genesis of this story began about 5 years before I heard today’s song.
In the mid 70’s the world was a somewhat scary place. The Cold War was hot.
My friends BMan, Franco and I had rented the back of a home nearby to the University of Western Ontario campus for our 3rd year studies.
The house at 218 Bernard was owned by a physician and his family. They lived in the front. We were in the back and part of the basement.
There was one other room rented to a grad student from Kenya studying for his PhD in Physics.
This man studied way, way more than we did. [Ed. Note- That is not saying much as most were probably studying way way more than rex and his mates.]
Seriously though, this person was actually working a ridiculous number of hours and we had commented on that to each other.
There were opaque glass windows in his room so you could tell when the lights were on if you went down to use the washroom. He would be awake well into the night. You could hear his shortwave radio playing the BBC quietly at all hours.
One night in early 1977 we were awakened around 2 am when this poor student literally cracked and suffered a massive mental breakdown.
I will spare the many details of this but will tell you that he began by shouting hysterically that a nuclear attack by Russia was in progress! As I came out of my bedroom on hearing this, my first thought was that this was the one person that would be the first to know if a nuclear attack was actually underway since he always had the BBC on.
I could almost hear the calm voice of the austere BBC voice calmly narrating the end of the world.
For a few split seconds – maybe 10 until I came out of my room and saw him standing there with my pals looking at me with eyebrows raised and saw the giant pile of our cereals he had poured on the floor because Gorbachev was coming for breakfast to negotiate peace, I figured it was real. There was no way this gentleman would ever have joked about something like that. Fortunately, it was not real.
Then it was just very sad as the ambulance took him to the hospital.
For a few seconds though, it had been legitimately real. My pulse had quickened. At the age of 21, it was my first direct exposure to a person having a nervous breakdown. It was also the first time I had a real but fleeting belief that the apocalypse was upon us.
The Set-Up
Fast forward about 5 years. I had finished my 3rd year of undergrad, then three years of law school at UWO and a year of articling in Wïndsor.
In the Fall of 1981 through February of 1982, I was residing back in London, Ont. taking the Bar admission course. This consisted of attending daily lectures and every couple of weeks we wrote an exam on various legal subjects.
For this 6 month stint, I resided with my long time friend, articling colleague and soon to be associate, JOHN CLARK. We had each rented a bedroom in a private north London home.
Although it may seem like mere piffle now, there was still much uncertainty in the world at that time.
On March 31, 1981 John Hinkley had shot President Ronald Reagan (and others) in an attempt to impress the actress Jodi Foster.
I came home from lectures on October 6, 1981 turned the tv on and promptly had a short nap. I awoke to seeing images of fighter jets flying over an airfield. While I was snoozing, Jihadists had assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and 11 others as they sat watching a military parade. Figuring out what had happened for the next few minutes was most discombobulating.
The Song
Fast forward a few weeks. I was up very late cramming for an exam the next day. It was probably after 1am and I was listening to Western student radio with my headphones on and probably half- dozing when “this song”came on.
It woke me out of my stupor immediately. It took me a while to fully appreciate that this was an actual song. I didn’t notice any music was being such as the power of the words I was hearing.
Turns out the track was called “Your Attention Please” by Scottish band THE SCARS 🏴. The LP is entitled “Author! Author!.”
By the time the song was over I was drained. I finally realized it was a song only. It was my version of what I thought the BBC was broadcasting 5 years earlier.
I have since acquired the LP and Cd with bonus tracks. The songs are otherwise decent and very much early 80’s sounding indie / new wave.
I had never heard anything quite like this song before, and, in many respects, since. I listen to it often.
Close your eyes without the video to best appreciate my harrowing moment.
May this be the only such “warning” you ever hear…
Thanks for following this site.
SPOTIFY- I only have a Live version which doesn’t capture what I heard that night but is still a good listen once you know the story…
https://open.spotify.com/track/6qHXDLb2HHNgdZwKHGMgWh?si=fpGltcXWSFCOZ2iMuYQCQQ
(SONG 1381)
Play Loud and Always Listen
11/30/2026
underground365 
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