The Puffin Book idea first came into my life Christmas 1998 when Jamie gave two small shiny green note books to my flat mate Ben. The first had a short introduction written by Jamie, the second was blank. Ben has soon started filling it up with thoughts, ideas, memories and moments, and before long the Puffin' Book had become an establishment in its own right. But where did the idea come from? How did a small pad of paper and a pen have such an impact on the lives of so many? To answer this question, and others we turn to Jamie to tell the story...
Hello, Hello, Hello,
After much thought I have begun what I know of the much demanded history of this PUFFIN BOOK!! No, this is not a take-off from the age-old publishing house 'Puffin'. It is merely a reference for chillin out with whomever you choose, wherever you like, whenever!!
Now the only problem is remembering how it all began for me. It takes me back a good few years to around the middle of 1995!! I take you back now to the heaviest stage of my hedonistic lifestyle. A period of blatant debauchery during my time at University. I was heavily into my raving and my various illegal extras so memory is fairly warped around these times. I was an avid raver and used to go a minimum of once monthly. At one such event I met this guy Duncan and his extremely attractive girlfriend Donna-Lee. We formed that instant bond that is possible when you have no inhibitions, but unfortunately parted without swapping addresses etc.
A few months down the line I was having a bad time at a rave. My mind
was quite literally glowing like a beacon and I was suffering the onset
of paranoia!! Whilst crouched in a corner watching the world I saw this
large black shape slam into the floor in front of me and a voice saying:
"Alright Jay, where the fuck have you been hiding?"
Looking, I saw a large kit bag in front of me, and some guy from the
stage squatting near me. I had fuck all idea who he was and my mind
raced around many million different thoughts in a mere second!! It
turned out to be Duncan and he was concerned that I did not look to
well (with badly blue lips and deep sunken eyes) and had come to help
sort me out. Which, thankfully he managed!!! We swapped addresses and
I was invited down to visit and meet his crew. Then that time goes
blank again...
Barely a few days later after recovering I was transferring the details to my address book and decided to call him. After a quick chat I arranged to pop down that very weekend!!! This is where things start to get silly!!!!
Despite a very heavy night the previous weekend I had still laid my hands on some more narcotics in the name of 1 dove and 2g's of speed. These I mixed with a bottle of water to drink in the car on the way down to Kent. I took the usual stuff with me, clothing, music tapes, lump of puff, money and a tub of fresh strawberries. They were my Mum's idea to give to Duncan's parents for putting me up for the weekend, but hey they came in very handy!
Okay the drive there is approximately 2 hours, down the M11, round the M25, along the M2 and then off into his town down towards Dover way. To set the scene it was the peak of our summer period, and my car was your typical boy racer's car. It was a black Mk3 Escort with blacked out windows (to hide the illegal activities I got up to) with a big booming stereo system. Now I'm driving down these motorways with my windows down and music blaring whilst swigging away at this bottle of "water". Heh heh heh! By the time I reached the Dartford TollBooth I was wasted, buzzing my bollox off and rushing to the sound of the traffic never mind my music.
Now when I got to near Duncan's I had to follow instructions to his house. Bear in mind I'm now worse than at the toll booth and the music is maxed!! I'm looking for this pub where I have to turn right and look for a lay-by to pull up in which is very near to his house. No problem I think. I wish!!!! When I found the pub I was running late on the time I expected to get there and things were going pear shaped to say the least!! Screeching round the corner that the pub was on, I am confronted with a quite housing area with a lay-by directly to my left. I swung my car in to a spot and then became aware of a large mother's meeting behind my car, kids, prams, pets, the whole fucking picnic!!!!
Killing the music immediately I thought "FUCK!!!" this is going to look pretty bad for Duncan, unless...
Jumping out of the car I glanced at the group to see a world of
disbelief and mild disgust on all these faces. Shit, shit, shit!!!
Opening the back door of the car I grab the tub of strawberries. Calm
as you like considering my state I walk over to the group and say
"Excuse me ladies, but would anyone care for a strawberry?"
They melted like butter in a hot pan!!!
"Could anyone tell me where Duncan lives please, its number blah?"
Well they all tried to tell me at once which hurt my head, but I found
his house and went knocking. Breathing deeply, trying to control my
body and mind and JAW, I waited very conscious of many eyes watching
me! Thankfully he opened the door and let me in quickly.
Dashing upstairs I was greeted by his friends having a smoke, some of which I knew from raving!! Great they'd all know the score, no problem and so I told my tale, much to their amusement. This room was the best room I've ever seen.!!! Polystyrene tiles covered the ceiling and upper walls. On each tile there was a handprint, a name and a date. This was a record of everyone who had visited Duncan. Great idea I thought and then I noticed the main areas of wall. This room must have taken years of dossing to create!! There was a collage of black and white pictures covering all wall space and then over the top were pasted colour images of so much different shit I didn't stop staring for ages!! A mouth shaped area made up of pictures of smiling mouths, the little caterpillar thing that gets shot out of the apple in that old TV advert! Quite literally too many images for my brain to cope with and remember!!
Then the first ever book came out and I was asked to write in it. Well my brain was close approaching melt down and so I wrote just a few words.
"Jay woz 'ere. I will be back!!!"Then I leafed through the other entries for a while before they decided they wanted more puff.
No such luck, strolling up the road chuffing away we approached the vicarage and asked to see Tim. Letting us in we politely greeted the vicar and wife and zipped upstairs to Tim's room. My mind is now completely fried for meeting Tim, but he was cool and just laughed when they told him what state I was in. GREAT I thought, you should try being in my shoes! Well they scored their gear and Tim decided to play us a new song he was writing. My God it was fantastic. I'll never really know if it was my enhanced state or it really was that good, but I very nearly stopped breathing as I watched and listened to him play. He played something like a cross between pop and classical, leaning more to classical but then started to fuck around with a Wah-Wah pedal and distort the music. FUCKING 'ELL!! I was completely gobsmacked and live with that memory still!!
From there we wandered to his friend Marc's house whose parents were away and proceeded to smoke ourselves into a coma. Well they did!! Again I saw a book being passed around and asked to have a look. There were stories, pictures, poems, idle thoughts, lyrics, events, all sorts jotted down in here. What a great idea I told them all. They explained that they called it "Head Space", it was about the space that your head was in when you wrote each entry. You could always look back and see exactly what mood you were in or what was happening in your life. It was there for eternity. We talked until the early hours with them mainly listening to me chatter on about anything and everything as I began to peak on my "water"!!
Finally they needed to sleep and so left me with a sleeping bag, the TV and video, a pen and a Puffin' Book. I was in heaven! I read through the book and then watched a video of the last rave we were all at, then my brain kicked into overdrive and I began scribbling with a vengeance into this book. With odd sips of water and much re-lighting of spliff I poured my every thought into this book. Some of it made sense, but a great deal didn't. My mind was fucked and so were my thoughts and I even got to a stage where I was writing down instructions to myself about what I was doing, why I should stop and ultimately why I couldn't!! By the time they roused in the morning I had annihilated that book with 36 pages of my brain!! OOPPSS!!
They didn't mind at all and had a good laugh at the entries I'd put in there. From that pint on I was readily accepted in their group and so began the rest of a wild, wild weekend that was one great big adventure!! I was sad when I left and the drive home was long, slow and boring compared to the weekend I'd had. But hey, that's what makes those events so special.
I kept in touch with both Duncan and his girlfriend throughout that year and still write to them both although they have split up. But that year for my birthday they sent me up a tape of Tim playing guitar and also a brand new PUFFIN BOOK!! Since then I try not to look back but look forward to the new friends I'll meet and fun times to be had. This book helps me remember all these things. So get yourself a book and spread the word!!!
Take Care, Chill Out, Respect To All,
Jamie (JAY)
Raver Extra-Ordinaire!