Annotating Season's End

We've had a busy day. Using Young Keith's patented time machine we snuck back to the dressing room of a university student union venue c 1988, and left the following message. Let's hope we got there in time to prevent Marillion embarrassing themselves....

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Getting close to season's end
I heard somebody say
That it might never snow again
In England

Yes. But they were wrong. They confused climate with weather, I suspect. You want to be careful about your friends' habit of indulging in hyperbole. I mean, you think of all that "Script for a Jester's tear" stuff. You sure it wasn't Fish giving you this weather forecast?

Snow flakes in a newborn fist
Sledging on a hill
Are these things we'll never see In England?

I rarely see newborns with snow in their fists - as I say, you seem to have some strange friends, if they go around shoving snow into the hands of small babies. But I saw an awful lot of sledging on hills today. In fact, I'm sick of snow. If only you still had Fish, you might be able to burn enough aviation fuel on world tours to prevent the current white-out in Husborne Crawley happening. But no, you had to let him go off and make all that pretentious stuff solo, didn't you? Though, to be fair, not as pretentious as this.

We'll tell our children's children why - we grew so tall and reached so high  - we left our footprints in the earth And punched a hole right through the sky

Yes, but now you're talking about the ozone layer. Which, although CFCs are apparently a strong greenhouse gas component, is not the same thing at all.

We'll tell them how we changed the world And how we tamed the sea 

Look, you can't go combining breast-beating, mean culpa-eco-doom with hubris like this. Either we can wreck the climate or we can tame the sea. If we could genuinely do the latter (and the recent evidence is that we can't) we could probably do something about the former.

And seasons they'll never know in England

Too right. "Summer", we called it. It used to be a week of sunshine between Spring and Autumn. Now we just have an eight-month "rainy season", followed by Winter.

So watch the old world melt away

Not being funny - have you considered investing in shares in a salt mine? Will make you a fortune in years to come.

A loss regrets could never mend
You never miss it till it's gone
So say goodbye, say goodbye

OK goodbye then, Marillion. Although, in 25 years' time, you'll still be with us. As, indeed, will snow.