WHAT David Sylvian - Secrets of the Beehive
WHEN Oriel College, Oxford - 4 June 1988
The sound of teenage love evaporating.
Boy sees Girl.
Boy and Girl go to colleges at different ends of the country.
She’s at Oxford University. He’s at Middlesbrough Polytechnic.
Very different colleges, very different ends of the country.
Girl dumps Boy.
Boy decides to still travel to Girl’s city to see rare David Sylvian live show.
David Sylvian cancels the show.
Boy has to spend the night on ex-girlfiend’s floor.
Awkward.
The album ’Secrets of the Beehive’ tracked my first serious breakup with what seemed to my teenage mind a clairvoyant-like insight: “Did he really sing about our love being strong enough… that’s MY LIFE!”. Oh, the innocence of youth...
David Sylvian and, more specifically, his solo career has now been part of my musical world for 30 years. I still find his voice unusually comforting even when he’s channeling lyrics like:
"I’m waiting for the agony to stop
and let the happiness in" (Let the Happiness In)
I think there’s hope, optimism and redemption at the end of this track. I want to believe that’s true. Then the album finishes with the lines:
"And though I'd like to laugh
At all the things that led me on
Somehow the stigma still remains
Is our love strong enough?" (Waterfront)
It wasn't.