home back to band page	The Soap Box - Mick Pointer January 2000
	Bloody Hell Clive! Great idea (not)! I’ve got to write something I feel strongly about… Money? Women? Ex-members of bands? No my subject is going to be KISSING! Well to be English and kiss-ing to be precise. Big furry tongue down the throat, soft gentle kisses around the inner… Stop that! No, I’m talking about the greeting kiss. Look, us being English, we’re just not used to it! A handshake is as far as we go, but when Arena are on tour in foreign lands, is it one kiss on the cheek? Two, three as the Dutch do? Women, men á la French, us English have no idea. We don’t show much affection to our families, let alone strangers on tour! We are more English stiff upper lips than wet girlie kisses on the cheeks. As we cross borders who knows what greeting custom we must learn without upsetting the locals. The greeting kiss has only recently arrived to the masses in England (kissing the hand of royalty or eighteen-year-old maidens of the upper classes has all ways been here) but what number shall we use: one or two, rub our noses to together ? It’s been very amusing watching other people deciding what they are going to do in that split second of meeting each other! No, I have a better idea; us English should invent our own greeting. Mine involves cream, rubber hoses and a smile! Anyone wants to give me any ideas next time I see them? See ya! Mick