Oliver: Spanner Banner - Battle Field (14 December 1991)

It's a battlefield in life.
All guns are aiming at you.

Sentiments which Unsane would surely agree with, indeed I think we can all agree with this slice of dancehall homily.  Ironic sentiments given that it was written at a time of apparent peace.

On the personal front, I would have definitely gobbled this up on any mixtape.  Although, I look back on my GCSE year with contentment over the fact that I'd finally reached the top of the school chain -sixth form excepted, and they weren't really a problem to any of us still in the year 7 - 11 cycle - school always was a battlefield.  I wasn't one of those kids who was in danger of having his head shoved down the toilet, but there was always the fear that if I dropped my guard or breathed out for a second, that I could be.  So my school days, saw me glide through the waters like a swan - relative serenity on the outside, kicking furiously underneath.  But with the GCSE year providing distractions like acting and interest in girls suddenly a world beyond the school gate started to make itself known. Through the autumn and winter of 1991, I wrapped this around me like a warm, comfortable coat, only to see it pulled off and hung in the distance like an out of reach washing line in spring 1992, but we'll come to that in due course.

Edit - I cannot let a post about Spanner Banner aka Joseph Bonner go by without including this, his biggest hit as a writer.




Videos courtesy of Killa Selector (Spanner Banner) and ole50centownu (CD & P).