The man in the miror

When you stand in front of the mirror, shaving or brushing your teeth do you really take a deep look at the face staring back? Not just checking for nasal hairs, I mean a really deep look. I do and it seems the older I get the less I know that person. I know the inner me is unchanged from the days of my duffel coat and winkle-picker wearing youth, it's the shell that stares back that fails to reflect this.

The eyesight doesn't help matters. I started to wear glasses a couple of years ago. At first it was just for reading but now, of course it's for everything. When I take my glasses and look at the face staring back I see my Father. Dad always wore glasses from before I was born. When he took them off I can remember thinking how strange he looked. I get that same emotion when I am glasses free (albeit in soft focus)

So what does all this have to do with music? Well it's all thanks to the clever recommendation by Spotify that I listen to Ian McCulloch's Holy Ghosts. I've always been a fan of his solo work and of course that of Echo & the Bunnymen. Hearing the orchestral re-working of Killing Moon and Bring On The Dancing Horses was like going for a spin in that magic Delorean back to those duffel coat and winklepicker wearing 80s. 

Bands didn't come much cooler than Echo & the Bunnymen and it seemed every boy at my school was trying to dress like front man Ian McCulloch. I looked at the faces of Ian McCulloch across album covers and it made me wonder, what face does he see when he's standing in front of the mirror?