Wildlife Read Online Free Page A

incidental smile.
    â€˜I don’t know,’ says Gabriel, turning from the window and walking across to the stone carved fireplace. ‘Things are changing. I do think that things are changing.’
    â€˜There’re no bands here at the moment?’
    â€˜We’ve had to let Mary go. The kitchen’s closed. Such a shame.’
    Peter takes a seat beside Janek. ‘It’s a shame because they eat terrible food, these young musicians, nothing natural.They need to be fed. I’m eating the vegetable patch single-handedly.’
    Janek lights his fag and drags an ashtray across the table. The cigarette packet tells that ‘Smoking Kills’. To Janek these words mean nothing.
    â€˜You see,’ says Peter, wafting smoke, ‘they make the music in their bedrooms nowadays, on their laptops. There’s even software that claims to replicate the acoustics of Reel World. And it’s a good thing, of course. Technology for all. The creative democracy, it’s a marvellous thing. But . . .’ Peter sighs; his eyes are once again drawn from the room to where the swan is clambering out of the lake. It beats its enormous wings and shakes the water from its white feathers before marching proudly across the patio. ‘Good music,’ says Peter, ‘and good life for that matter, requires great performances. People need inspiration. They do.
You
need inspiration, Janek. And so . . .’ Peter trails off.
    â€˜And so here I am?’ offers Janek.
    â€˜Yes. You’ve returned.’
    â€˜I have.’
    â€˜But for adverts,’ says Peter, lurching forward in frustration, offering Janek his crooked, gesturing hands. ‘I didn’t build this place to record advert jingles and I didn’t help you so that you could –’
    â€˜I’m doing this for the money,’ interrupts Janek. ‘You know how much these people pay.’
    â€˜I do,’ says Gabriel, instantly subdued, leaning back in his seat. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I got the call. The Wild World? I said. No thank you. But when they told me the price I had to reconsider. I had to say yes. Since the kids stay in their bedrooms, money is thin on the ground.’
    The two men drift into silence. Janek grinds out hiscigarette and finishes his coffee, confirming as he does so that neither activity matters. Peter Gabriel tries to get lost in thought. He occasionally turns suddenly, prompted by some noise, and stares at the window or the door. He’s seen some grand days, Peter has. The video for his 1986 hit, ‘Sledgehammer’, is commonly regarded as the greatest music video of all time. He did some magnificent stuff onstage with Genesis. He dressed up as a large and very entertaining flower. A sunflower. People laughed at him. Enjoyed him. He performed with his head peeping out of a gigantic yellow cone, too. He actually did that. To entertain people.
    â€˜These videos on the Internet,’ Peter says suddenly.
    â€˜What about them?’
    â€˜It’s good, isn’t it, yes, it’s a good thing, everybody getting a chance to make them and see them. And, of course, TV is terrible.’
    Peter gets up and peers out of the window, away from the lake towards the car park. ‘It’s just . . .’ he says, straining to see. ‘It’s just I saw one the other day that was just . . .’ He turns to Janek. ‘It was just a cat falling off a bookcase over and over again to an electronic beat.’
    â€˜OK.’
    â€˜That’s all it was and I thought, well, I thought, you know . . . it took three days of hard work to shoot the “Sledgehammer” video and, well, you understand. That video. It’s very entertaining, isn’t it?’
    Janek smiles. ‘Yes.’
    â€˜And this clumsy cat has been watched millions of times by millions of people and I thought . . . well, I