I was thinking about a girl I went to school earlier and couldn't remember her name...



well it's just come to me - Felicity Bisset. She was a bit like I was at 14 - dyed hair, slightly oddball. I remember she wanted to take me to the Lou Reed concert at The Odeon in 74? but I didn't go. She was very pretty in a gothic way - a look I like now and have done since the punk days; must have left me indifferent when I was 14. Black hair and a very pale complexion, delicate features and big dark eyes. She would only have stood 5' or so and her overall appearance was ethereal and refined.

She wore black and her clothes were always way ahead of the fashions of the day with a little touch of Victorian op shop elegance thrown in - before it was trendy. She had these 'Maitresse' style lace up shoes with huge heels (remembering this is a couple of years before punk & stiletto's became de rigueur) which were so unusual they looked like they had been specially made for her, as if to correct a limp - save for the high heels. I remember she would cop a lot of flack for the way she looked but it never seemed to bother her. I used to enjoy talking with her about music and I still don't understand why I never went to that Lou Reed gig.

I left school and immersed myself in the punk scene. Although I never thought it at the time, It would have made perfect sense to meet Felicity again as it was a scene that I know she would have embraced. In retrospect, I guess she would have headed to London as soon as she finished school, or Paris, maybe New York. Come to think of it she was always so far ahead of the scene that she was probably finished with punk as I was beginning. I never did see her again after I left school, I never really kept in touch with anybody from school - I just walked out one day and never went back... they were as glad to see the back of me as I was them.

I used to think I was a real individual when I was a teenager, but nothing like Felicity. I ran with a crowd, I stood out but still had the company of the pack, where as she was a one of, she created & others imitated - but not right away; they would laugh for a few months until they had seen a pale imitation in a pop mag and then couldn't rush down to Princes St quick enough to empty the racks of prole garb. Teenagers have the fashion memory span of goldfish - just as well...

I remember her voice had a child-like softness when she spoke. It sounds contrived but I can't explain how well it suited her. I used to smoke 'Gitanes' French cigarettes (Pretentious? Moi?) simply because Bowie used to smoke them and I wouldn't give any away - too bloody dear & hard to find - except to her. I wasn't till years later I found out Felicity means joyful. How the french teacher must have laughed when Felicity walked into the classroom...

Writing this 30 years later makes me smile...