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Homepage Hughes Chronicles Site Map		(Autumn 2001)
Dust to dust, freezer to concrete... It's not often we get a murder in Maldon. Some people reckon it's not often enough. But when we do get one it's usually a real peach. In this instance, a body, later identified as the manager of the kebab shop in the High Street, was discovered in a block of concrete at the back of the premises. Out of tragedy came a song (not much recompense for the victim, I know). This song is not about the murder itself or the people who were alleged to have done it (they were subsequently released on appeal, the court ruling their conviction unsafe). I wasn't there, thank goodness, and I've got nothing to say about that. The song is about reactions to it including those of the local newspaper, people in the street and in the pub. Some people talked about an eeriness around the empty shop as they walked past. It had stood empty for six months at least after the manager had suddenly gone missing. The lease or whatever was then bought up, the builders went in and bob's your uncle. One swing of an axe in the back yard and all was revealed. I wasn't even in the pub when the news of the discovery was doing the rounds but my brother was. He has a great capacity for remembering everything that's said down there when required. He came back with a description of some macabre and, let's be honest, quite funny reactions to the news. Black humour some would call it. The thing was, the unfortunate victim was Turkish and not a local and I expect that had something to do with the response. The involvement of concrete in the tale inevitably led to stuff about blue circle and whether the victim was racially mixed - 6:1 (this was changed in the song to "socially mix" after advice that the original phrase might "rock the boat" unnecessarily from a radio point of view.) But pub humour is definitely infectious, my brother and I came up with "management under new shop" at exactly the same time. I did hear tell that whoever did the deed had put the victim in the freezer while they went to get the ready mix. I shudder to think how anyone knew that. But, anyway, on the day of the discovery, the lower High Street was indeed lined with transits from the forensic squad and that night they did close off the street while a crane was brought in. They lifted the entire concrete block onto the back of a lorry and off to the labs. One thing that I think is good about the song, provides a tension perhaps, is the mix of light and dark, lament and humour. It makes things more interesting than a song about how you shouldn't kill people doesn't it.		The background to this photo is Devon, not Essex. It's the verandah of Presshouse Studio where Mark Tucker and I mixed the track. I had the newspaper with me because Mark or Colin wanted to see it I think. I'm reading the report on Heybridge Swifts. .