Bonzo Dog Dadaists

Long before Major Tom switched off his radio circuit to a blue planet earth, and drifted blissfully off into the stratosphere, a young Nicky Nova was fascinated by another rock'n'roll astronaut: the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's "Urban Spaceman". The Bonzo's were a wacky art-rock ensemble comprising Neil Innes and the late Vivian Stanshall, and in many ways were the missing link between the Beatles and Monty Python.
They appeared in the Magical Mystery Tour film, and their biggest hit, 1968's "I'm the Urban Spaceman", was anonymously produced by future "Space Oddity" producer Gus Dudgeon, and Paul McCartney, under the collective pseudonym of "Apollo. C. Vermouth".
Neil Innes later scored and appeared as the Lennon-esque "Ron Nasty" in Eric Idle's Beatles spoof "The Rutles - All You Need Is Cash". The film was bankrolled by George Harrison , who also had a cameo role as a roving reporter, interviewing Michael Palin as a steady stream of looters pilfer the Rutles "Grapefruit - Corps." building. Innes also performed an acoustic version of "Urban Spaceman" in Monty Python's "Live at the Hollywood Bowl".
The song's lyric deals humourously with issues of surface vs substance, with lines like, "I'm a glossy magazine, an advert in the tube", and ends with the existential twist, "I don't exist". You can't help but wonder if Bowie was taking notes....

Wasted Youth

This is a song written by Nicky Nova, called "Wasted Youth". Any similarities between it and
"Dum Dum Boys" by Iggy Pop is purely coincidental (yeah, right)..

Well I used to hang around with the wasted youth,
Wasting all our lives away.
We'd hang out every night above the old bottle shop,
And sleep in half of the day.
Well hey there, you spoilt-ass middle class boys,
Your mummies put you through private school.
But all you do is sit around smoking hash all day,
And enforce the ten commandments of cool.

And I sing wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa wasted youth,
My-oh-my-oh ramma-lamma hey
wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa wasted youth,
All of the livelong day.

The years roll by in the blink of an eye,
And I think about those little wasted boys.
The wheels on the vice are turning too tight,
And I need to hear some more of their noise.
But wasted Ed's a trolley jockey at the local Supa-Mart,
Wasted Joe works on a construction site,
And they still look down their noses like they split the atom,
Never call me on a Saturday night.

And I sing wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa wasted youth'
My-oh-my-oh ramma-lamma hey
wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa wasted youth,
All of the livelong day.

Deleted Excerpt Four

This one is from Chapter 42, page 284:

"Have you seen Shane lately"? asked Jemma, her eyes lighting up expectantly.
"No. But I have been seeing a fair bit of his mum since I moved back home. Did you know that she and Shane's dad have split up"?
"No, I didn't hear about that", Jemma replied, sounding genuinely surprised. "That's a shame. I really liked them".
"I like her...he's a PIG", I snapped. "What happened was, he was screwing around with some student at the Uni where he lectures, and Shane's mum got wind of it and kicked him out of the house. Now she's living there in that big place all alone".
I could see that Jemma was taking this all in with great interest, so I continued.
"I've been writing a screenplay, and I go down there every day and read her updates that I've written. It's about a high-profile footy player who gets discovered by a big, cigar-chomping Hollywood producer stroke impresario,who takes him to L.A. to be a movie star, and a rock'n'roll singer", I gushed rapidly, winding myself up so that the words were spilling off my tongue almost too fast for me to keep up with them, as they always do when I get excited.
"Whoa, steady on there Nick old kid", Jemma said, swaying backwards out of line of the verbal barrage, and holding up her arm like a boom gate.
"What's the matter? Don't you like my idea"?? I asked, a little hurt.
"It's not that. Geez, why do you take everything so personally"? She replied.
"It's just that I'm sure Pam has a lot on her plate right now, what with the breakup and everything. And she probably doesn't appreciate you wandering down there and regailing her with the Mark Jackson story on a daily basis".