I had the lyrics to Not Nineteen Forever before the band existed. They were in a little red book of poems and scribbles that got me a place on the creative writing course at the University of Salford. Most of what became the songs for our first album, St Jude, were in that book.
As well as uni, I was working five nights a week at the Night & Day bar in Manchester, but in a nightclub I’d be the dude scribbling in the corner while everyone else was dancing or copping off. Not Nineteen Forever was probably inspired by a specific incident, although I can’t remember it exactly. The first line, “She had to peel me off the pavement”, could have happened on many a night out then.
The chorus: “You’re not nineteen forever, pull yourself together”, sounds like the sort of thing somebody might have said to me, but it could easily have been me giving myself a telling off after waking up with a fuzzy head. I got the chords when I was trying to work out Someday by the Strokes but got the finger positions muddled up. I’d taken a bag of washing to my parents’ house and was working on it in my old bedroom when my dad poked his head in and said: “It sounds all right, that.” Not Nineteen Forever was one of the last songs I wrote before I convinced my three best mates to form the band.
I told them: “If you don’t do this with me, I’ll be playing acoustic guitar on my own in Manchester pubs for ever.” You never think a song’s going to resonate 20 years later, but it’s become easily Courteeners most popular song. Ironically, it initially charted at No 19, but years later when it went double platinum Andy Burnham – who comes to our gigs – presented us with the award in the Britons Protection pub. The song’s taken on a poignant dimension now.
At gigs I see our original fans together with their kids – who are 17, 18, 19 – and they’re all singing: “You’re not nineteen forever, pull yourself together.” Courteeners had just been signed by a major label who asked me if I could go to Manchester to meet them as they had expressed interest in working with me. I saw them play in one of the university halls and it was mind-blowing. They already had a devoted following who were singing along with the lyrics the way Smiths audiences used to.
I’d produced the Smiths, so it was right up my avenue. In the mid-2000s there’d been a resurgence of indie guitar bands: Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs and Kasabian. In a way Courteeners were the last hurrah of that kind of hugely popular guitar group.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
