TRUE STORY

My son’s a musician

and when he was starting out
I’d sometimes carry his guitar home
so he could remain in Camden, or wherever

with his friends after a gig

and because I was an old person
carrying a guitar, younger people
would sometimes ask if I was famous

and I’d be modest and say not really
before telling them my name was David Gilmour.

And it was this that saved me

from the fangs of Dracula when
I encountered him (looking for victims
after midnight) at the bus stop opposite

Chalk Farm Underground.

He was a massive fan of the Floyd
and had always hoped to see them, but
circumstances had conspired against him.

His favourite album, surprisingly,

was Atom Heart Mother, the one
with the mournful cow (a Holstein heifer)
looking backwards over its shoulder on the cover.

I told him that both myself and Roger (Waters)
had serious misgivings about the quality
of the recording, but that didn’t appear

to bother him in the slightest.

His second favourite was Ummagumma.