New single from Henry & John, who if you didn’t already known are Barbara.

Waiting Outside Alone. The title alone is enough to conjure up melancholy thoughts; visions of the date that never happened. Like Richard Hawley, waiting outside alone the cinema on the cover of Coles Corner, hopefully clutching the bouquet in a romantic gesture yet destined for heartbreak. There does seem to be some slight aching desperation whichever way you look at those three words.

However, Waiting Outside Alone is less a romantic vision of pathos and sees Henry and John getting more in line with the sidelining of the younger people who seem to be excluded from national issues.

within a few bars in the opening guitar line, we’re taken back to the mid-Seventies and Top Of The Pops with a guitar line that’s very Slade’s Far Far Away crossing swords with a late-period Beatle bounce. While the mid-Sixties Kinks and ‘Brian May at his best’ promises are also justified, the key lies in the signature of Barbara’s contemporary retro. As vintage as crimpelene, corduroy fabric (which may well be coming back ‘on trend’) and heavy orange and brown patterned fabrics, there’s a boldness and confidence in the pant-swinging chorus.

No wonder Jarvis Cocker too is making a much vaunted reappearance with Pulp and as our pals the Doonicans, one step ahead in the fashion stakes, already know, tank tops are in.

Another splash of sunshine refreshingly different and an antidote to the greyness that makes our lives so trying. As we’ve said about Barbara more than once, what better way to fill the hole in your life.

Afterthought – how about a Barbara themed compo? Send in a photo of you or one of your friends ‘waiting outside alone’. In the best traditions of Vision On (for those old enough to remember) we can show the best in a gallery but afraid we can’t return any but could offer some sort of a prize for those that we show… 😉

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