This is my page for my concept record, currently entitled Anyroad.

Part One : Prologue

Scene I: 15 and Gone

an introduction to Sweetie and Handsome.

Sweetie wastes her time with useless medicine. Handsome’s friends laugh at him behind his back but if he’s crazy then he’s escaping this. Sweetie bruises her skin to get some attention from the boys, and girls? Handsome keeps trying to impress them. if he’s crazy then he’s escaping this. your lives are slipping through your hands, like clarity, the sand that's dripping through the timepiece. You enter a place where you don't know who you are. Handsome's a 15 year loser reject and no-one hears a sound when he screams so he’s escaping this. Sweetie's stranded in this crossroad town. She needs someone to drag her away by force before she drowns in a car crash.

Scene II, Act I: Like Phantoms

continuation of the introduction, this is about Sweetie just before she meets Handsome.

so you walked out into the desert in blackness and buried yourself in a cool sandy grave so the morning will bring the mourning in black suits, but breathing through a straw isn't the same as dying. a shimmer out of reach, you are. a star out on the beach, you are. safe in the ground like a needle unfound. like fools without words, you are safe. so you climbed out of the ground in blackness and drowned yourself in a cool water grave so the silence will be the only noise you hear, but breathing through a straw isn't the same as dying. so you turned yourself into a kite in blackness and fastened a key halfway, hoped for lightning, but a body in the night sky hardly spotlights you and soaring through a sky isn't the same as flying. you're wasting your time. you soar without a kite at night like phantoms should fly, like a full-time 24 hour spy. just hope you're looking through someone else's eyes because your body lies faraway from these night-filled skies.

Scene II, Act II: This Me

a song about Handsome.

i was a-lost inside myself for so many years with no place to go and no-one to hear my prayers or conscience. i was a boy treating myself like a man for years with no understanding of what it's like to feel a soul drift inside out. i am a nomad for the years i spent behind the wheel of circumstance and crashed it 18 times. i am a nomad for the words i left behind in books of circumstance. they published all my lies. i was aghast at the person i had become but knowing this didn't make my transition easier. i was alone although never quite on my own. thinking i was in love before doesn't make for easy nights so i take this drink and never think and hope that i can live like all the songs i hear on radio tonight. so i take this drink and never think and hope that i can live like all the actors here on the screen tonight. i am at last aware of the person i've become and old cassettes and cigarettes keep up the charms. i am a mask above the real person kept below but i am saving face and taking up my arms against this world that i thought was so against this me.

Scene III, Act I: I Thought I Knew It All

they meet each other.

the night swept us away, hearts painted on our hands. when i first saw your face, i was like an ocean drawn to sands. did you have an idea of love before? i know i thought i knew it all. tell me did you know of love before? when we were four foot tall. screams at night were in my sight but they are faraway now. lost by day, inside your name, and we are blessed away now. the morn i woke up there in the house which wasn't mine, i served my heart onto your plate as if it was always yours, not mine. did you have any thoughts of love before? i know i thought i knew it all. tell me your brushes with love before. that morning saved us all. don't force your eyes on mine without an open heart. this is our lives inside a dream and you're poised inside my heart.

Scene III, Act II: Self-Inflicted Sweet Revenge For Handsome

Handsome reflects on the changes from a boy to a man and invites Sweetie into his heart.

the windscreen fogs on this early morning dawn and the headlights are like my bleary eyes. i feel a spark burn deep in my trembling heart and the shock lights up the morning like a match. my rearview betrays reality of the cars behind like my own conscious effort to erase my past and the morning sun fights it's way through the clouds as the truth of my youth fights through my mind. at the bottom of my everything, there is doubt; not about my situation but how my life fell before. my sins capsized by thoughts that everything was right and this mindless self-betrayal brought about my fate. still, changing all i know was the ultimate in retribution and three cheers for self-inflicted sweet revenge! so Sweetie, take a seat with me and my arrogance but watch your step as you leave and condescension falls. i open my door where hope, more than thrice before, crumbled under the weight of my own dissertation. wisdom is not truth and i'm far less smart than most and hatred is the breeding ground for cheap betrayal.

Scene IV:

they fall in love, this song is about finding love and getting married

Part Two : Up and Down, Heaven but Falling

Scene I, Act I

song about their marriage.

Scene I, Act II

song about birth of their daughter.

Scene I, Act III: As I Take This Letter Down

A love letter from Handsome to Sweetie.

as i take this letter down and fall upon my words, my eyes stay blue and mineral throughout this personal purge. fighting what i know and uncertain circumstance, my ears stay glued and cynical throughout this happenstance but 4.02 reads the clock and I am so awake... but i have medicines and antedotes and symphonies of sound. i've got you to keep me warm at night as winter comes around and when all my lights are fading deep, six feet underground, will you act upon your impulses and save me from the sound of silence in my lifeless ears? as the only thing have to fear is night. as i confess, i write down and all previous words; my lines became intolerable throughout the scripted page. trying to stay true to me but writing for the world, i scarred myself forever then and have wasted all my words, but 4.14 reads the clock and i've just begun to break... but i have ritalin and anecdotes and stories by the pound. i've got innocence and self-surgery and time that's been rewound, and when all my lights are fading deep, six feet underground, will i wake up from indifference and save me from the sound of silence in my lifeless ears? as the only thing i've ever feared is night. fight my eyes, slur my speech and break a part of me that's seen life. this is my heart and i'm not breaking it. i've got those tattoos of regret. i hate what i have done before but actions make my mind react. i've hurt enough of what i've seen. i've lived inside my foolish dream. i've made my bed, now time to sleep, will you be there to protect me? and 6.01 reads the clock and i'm drifting off to sleep... and i have clarity and chemistry, from holding my daughter's hand. i've got a feeling of self-permanence to keep my feet steadfast, and when all my lights were fading deep, six feet underground, you just reached your hand into the snow and lifted me with the sound of harmony inside my ears. as the only thing i'd never seen was love.

Scene II, Act I: Your Light's Out

song about how it starts to fall apart.

"your light's out," she said to him, replied with a spark like a flint in the night but the chance went a long time ago and hearts beat louder when they fall apart. "why can't soon be now?" she asks him, "like a dog in a fight, you can't let this go." with a list of apologies, he's in the cold and hearts beat louder as they fall apart. "Sweetie, hate me, i'm no good for you, darling." the world gets smaller by the sound of voices, hope, hands, hearts. once you have it all, you can't let it slip away. "Sweetie, hate me, just run away, darling." his voice gets smaller by the sound of music, hope, hands, hearts. once you have it all, you can't let it slip away and angel cries as her parents fight, locks her body in her room and her heart in her mouth but the chance went a long time ago and hearts beat louder when they're scared of harm. the end of life is just a beach and hearts ride a wave when they're in love, but will they hit shore with love intact and their hearts beating safe on a sea of calm? the moon is drawn towards the sun like the waves are drawn to the shore and you know what it's like to be in love but sometimes love just needs a little more, and less words written on the paper of dagger eyes. every action causes reaction here and less hopes captured by the earth's satellites. every action causes destruction here.

Scene II, Act II: Like Sky

A lamentation written in the first person of Handsome.

sweet nightingale; an angel soaked in the colour green but the writer's tired of painting this scene and you slice up my chest with a guillotine. the blade drops down from the power of your hand. sweet phantom girl; your lip quivers and my heart trembles here but i plug the hole of my ship with anger fears and contemplate why you stick around. the blade cuts deep from the power of my hand. sometimes, the sky, like clouds you have to move away. breathe out the night. i take a little more of what i take for granted and now you're like sky. sweet bridal gift and sweet daughter, what have we become? but love sometimes just can't bridge the gap between angry words and common sense. the blade rusts up from the power of my hand so i say “crack open my ribs and take what you will because all that is behind belongs to you.” i always want to know what the ending is.

Scene II, Act III: As The Night

it continues to fall apart and Handsome leaves.

she practices her speech as he walks through the door. footsteps closer as she curls up. she's crying her eyes out and he'll never understand. he practices his speech as he walks through the door. he hears her cries as he moves closer. he just wants to hold her and she'll never understand. as the night creeps into day, the fears of the night fall away. as the dawn begins to show, he looks back and won't let go. screams fall on deaf ears as he tries to plead his case. she won't listen because it's over. romantic revolution, she's conquered all his plans and his world falls apart and he walks out of the door. "i guess i'll call or see you somewhere." the night will pass like no sleep and today will be yesterday. try to hold in your fears and talk through mistakes, face up to faces and keep hold of your heart, look into his eyes and see the truth that falls behind and just hold onto what is right.

Scene III, Act I: Photographs and Forgeries

Handsome flees down the coast.

on this cruel december night, this stereo in your hands. the freezing wind and pouring rain, your crippling heart and mark of Cain and you drove down to the coast to try and find feelings of new, but: photographs and forgeries and trembling hearts and urgencies... and the martyr said, "steady, are you all getting ready to fall?" and the fire kept burning while you're all the while yearning for her and fire can burn out your eyes... and this friendship's based on lies and no lies can ever last so have a drink and never think and wish your heart on falling stars. the solution's in the problem. the heartache's in the heartbreak.

Scene III, Act II: Sweetie FM

Handsome writes from the coast. As you can see, he's torn in half as to being angry because their relationship is over and being depressed because their relationship is over. He realises at the end that it's all fallen apart and he can't see how it can go back.

i freshen up with a cold frank glass of water as i watch the ocean hurl at me another attempt of armageddon. circling above the vultures, we are thirty degrees from cold. i am stuck fast on the incline and i can't move a muscle so hurt me for all you're worth and for what it's worth, you ain't worth a thought at all. sinking and blinding, hopeless fury is dying so miss me for all it's worth and for what you're worth, this ain't worth your pity at all. thinking i'm dying... hopeful... hopefully lying. i wasted words on a thick old plate of fury and i watched the soldiers lick their wounds - another round of "copy cat me". chaos above the armchair, we are thirty miles from here. my radio is tuned to You FM and i can't move a muscle. finding out that my attempts were futile was a learning curve and i can't live without you. finding out the drizzle down my shirt was my sweat was a learning curve and i dissolve your tail-lights. if this ain't over, we should cherish what we have because although i was instrumental in the decline of what we knew, i've got a piece of you carved in the wall along with the words that i spoke: "i was here, and we created but now it's gone."

Scene IV: Little Girl

Now we start the story of Sweetie and Handsome's daughter, Angel. Due to the problems caused by the breakup of their marriage, she has run away.

little girl burns a brighter flame. run hard, don't you ever stay here. streetlights fade in the darkness. you run hard, but you will never leave. little girl has become a target. ran hard, but couldn't block the shot. surnames, numbers, institutions, you tried hard, apologies they breathe. too young to sell your soul but too old to let it go. story left untold - the ending's left out in the cold. little girl is wishing upon stars, someone to come and take you home. your little home was levelled in the riot. just like life, it’s built then it's gone. hide away in the corner of a little room, begging for some sympathy, begging for some sanctuary. hide away in the corner of your mind, waiting for the clarity but will they ever understand? your name is angel but you never flew.

Scene V: Handsome Past Addiction

Handsome starts to deal with his loss in the forms of addiction to methadone and alcohol.

the fire burns into a flame which in itself keeps us the same. methadone is coloured rain and i am past addiction. the needle shot straight to the heart which in itself feels empty here. controlling all my wildest fears and i am past addiction. so i breathe into the night and light a smoke underneath this melbourne sky. i'm drowning tonight. one drink turns to six more which attempts to cover my shame. bottles can cover pain and i am past addiction. so i squint into the light and breathe out deep underneath this melbourne sky. i'm drowning in the sky with fears i'm gonna die. i've got a heart inside a statue and i'm holding onto nothing, yet holding onto every word you say.

Scene VI, Act I: Understars

song about Sweetie still trying to find Handsome, but now also trying to find Angel.

angel, where are you tonight? are you under stars? angel, where are you tonight? i am calling and ever crawling now. handsome's gone away and left the world askew. no contact for him anywhere and now there is no you so wake up, little angel, i'm out here in the rain and come back to your home tonight so we can start again. so many words, so much of choice, we should have changed. i could blame myself for this but we're both the ones to blame but you're not, little angel, you kept me from fallen grace. now time is lost and i'm running hot so we can start again. don't leave me here, i need you, i need you. don't make the same mistakes as your father did that night. don't leave me here, i miss you, i miss you. you're my air for breathing deep and in conscience, you're my sight.

Scene VI, Act II: I Never Told You The Truth

after attempting suicide, handsome makes a choice to return to sweetie.

it's too late to save my life. i cried for help a million times but the world never heard the words: "come on and save me." i'm diving underneath the waves, never to come back again. i never told you the truth; the reasons behind me leaving you lonely. goodbye from your best friend; it's all gone bad. i’m leaving here tomorrow. it's too late to apologise. i've heard the lies and i breathe the night and there's a light on the bay. just speak the truth now. i feel the water in my lungs, it's holding me from breath and the world's gone dark again. come on and save me. i never wanted to leave. i never wanted to say goodbye. i never wanted to leave, it scares me.

Part Three : Hello Again, Goodbye Again

Act I, Scene I:

song about things returning to the way that they were.

Act I, Scene II: Plans

Handsome and Sweetie finally meet and discuss getting back together. Sweetie says that she has had relationships that are bad before and she can't take it. In the end, she relents and Angel returns home.

he made plans to not make plans again and to lay outside in the smoggy Melbourne haze. he wants to write songs of rain tonight and there's a piece of her in every single phrase. she made plans to fall in love that night, little did she know that she were falling for life. he paints the truest colours on his sleeve and he lost himself in a sea of green and white. she said "i've been this way before and i just can't take it anymore. i don't want anything other than a sure thing." she made plans to never compromise herself. he asked her on a date for the rest of her life. he’s her armour for breathing deep and they are both shadows on the horizon of their sight. sleep sound tonight, oh angel. honest, they fall on you so sleep sound tonight, oh angel. there must be something we could say to pause this moment.

Act I, Scene III:

a song with apologies and vows never to break up again.

Act II, Scene I:

handsome is diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Act II, Scene II: Hello Again, Goodbye Again

song lamenting that they just got back together and now Sweetie is going to lose Handsome forever.

Act II, Scene III: 30 and Gone

handsome dies, written from his point.

i woke up today in the strangest of places: white walls and locked doors and bright lights. all i can remember is walking across the road with my friends in tow and everything went black. there's a memory there: a thousand people stare, ambulance sirens, but it's so faint now. all i know is that i can't move, i can't fly and all i want to do is get back to you. thank you, clarity. you lined up my bones and let my body hit the ground. someone dressed in white has come through the door and they're staring at me like i'm diseased. i hear drawn-out voices. someone's slowed the world but everything else moves by so quickly. what are they saying? i just want to scream and hope someone can understand the words that i say but then the lights darken and the voices fade and it's all gone grey and i welcome night and now we mourn the passing and may this spirit move in the holiest of ways. ashes to ashes, dust to dust, but the memory still remains, the memory of one. i wish i'd never said yes to a night out with the boys. i wish i was home with my girl right now. i want to tell her and angel i love them and pat my dog but now my chance is gone.

Part Four : Epilogue

Act I, Scene I: Just One Sign

sweetie laments the loss of handsome.

i still just can't believe you're gone. there was a warning but we never believed it and there you were out for the night and now you're gone and i'll never believe it. do you hear me sing your praises? do you hear me sing your requiem? this elegy is made of us and the life you left behind. they tell me life goes on but i don't know how. if you are out there, give me a sign. just one sign. i still just can't believe the truth; the reason behind you leaving me lonely and here i am, lonely at night, the clock reads 4am and i am so awake. do you hear your daughter cry now? do you hear us mourn your passing? if not for angel beside me here, i'd join you right away. they tell me life goes on and i guess she's how. your daughter believes in ghosts and phantoms. can such things be? and if our body is just a carriage for our soul, then you're still alive? can such things be?

Act I, Scene II:

handsome is a ghost, he goes about town and meets other ghosts. he finds out from a ghost friend that he has two years in limbo before moving on.

Act I, Scene III:

handsome sees sweetie and angel in their house and tries to communicate.

Act II: When Will Phantoms Die?

handsome goes for a flight around town and shares his memories.

i take a flight across this town tonight, across the skies and familar memories. there's the bar where we shared our first kiss and your house where i woke up the next day. those were the best days of our lives but i'm awake when i should be sleeping and 4am reads the clock on the station wall and i wonder if you're dreaming about me tonight. when will phantoms die? i'm holding onto what can never be again and it's killing what's already dead. float up past the freeway near our house and the hospital where angel came. there's the park where we walked our dogs and the beach where we walked in the rain. i can't stand this town that reminds me of you. it's tainted with your audience tonight so i'll fly across to the house we called our own and hope to catch a glimpse of you awake.

Act III, Scene I: New Beginnings

a prayer from sweetie to handsome.

i wrote a letter to a friend tonight. explained my life and how it's changed since you left. angel's getting big, wish you could see her. she starts at school sometime next year. i've got a job, reception, in town. doesn't pay much but we can just scrape by the rent. the dogs are getting old, they hate the winter. it's colder now than i remember last year, but i digress, i've missed the point, the reason for writing her this note i wrote tonight. i've met a guy, his name is Newman, he asked me to marry him and i have said yes. Handsome, i miss you but i've had to move on. there's no use listening to the same lonely song. Handsome, i miss you but haven't got a choice. i need someone to help me live. he's good with children and he reminds me of you, but i've got a photograph of you still in my room. please don't think that i've forgotten you. this prayer means nothing if you can't hear a word i say.

Act III, Scene II: The Music of the Night

handsome can't deal with sweetie's new love.

like boxing underwater, trying in vain to get to you and after all this time, you think i would've learned like windows closed shut, widows can move on in time and getting to the end of time doesn't make it easier. like television static, i can look but i can't touch you. the truth is, when he's around, i do my best to die. like photographs fade, angel's got a new father. do you even spare a thought for the ghost you used to love? despise myself for a time that's gone. i bleed with nightmares into the sun but words can't erase time and you can't know the truth. like a fish on heat, i'm dying to float upstream. for an outsider, this would be better than an opera. like the cat and mouse, the haunting's become the haunted... haunted by this night which grows ever colder. can you hear me sing from the valley of the night? i'm stuck here trying in vain to climb towards the light.

Act IV, Scene I:

handsome sees the wedding of sweetie and newboy and tries everything in his limited power to stop it.

Act IV, Scene II: Dead and Gone

goodbye to handsome, his two years of limbo are up and he is off to be reincarnated.