Backstage Larry and Ian and myself chat to the band while we wait for BSM to finish the signing. They show us their impressive collection of tattoos, each one personally coloured in by BSM before each gig. It’s got a bit more depth to it than our pre- gig ritual, which mainly involves us forming a queue in front of a battered Dragonforce C.D with little straws in our hands, while our tour manager Walshie tells us what pathetic cunts we are.

Buffy appears, and she’s delightful. Pretty, giggly and girlish, It’s hard to believe she’s…I do the math in my head. ‘Universal Soldier’ hit the charts in 1960…so…

OMG. She’s 73.

Totes amaze. She must be down with a few top-ranking cosmetic witchdoctors…But it’s not just her looks; she has a natural youthfulness that seems almost naive. When she tells me that she sold the legendary ‘Universal Soldier’ to some record industry lizard in Greenwich Village ‘for a dollar’ I’m outraged. I want to protect her. I want to stab that crocodile between the eyes.

Me, Ian, and Larry pile into a mini van with BSM and the four handsome braves and head back to her hotel. Larry’s still worming the angles, trying to persuade BSM to come back to our fleapit studio upstairs at Jamm.

‘Yeah, It’s sweet…we’ve got our own bar, three floors, production suite, we’ll look after you, sister.’

Cringe. His ‘sister’ is old enough to be his mother, and owns several properties in Hollywood off the back of songs she wrote for Elvis Presley. She got wise after Greenwich Village – now she can look after herself. Notwithstanding, half an hour later Buffy Sainte-Marie is standing in our cramped Brixton studio, cans on her head, doing a backing vocal to one of Larry’s songs. What a cunt, how does he do it?

Watching BFS in action is an education. She listens to the track once, glances at the lyrics, and nails the harmonies first time. Professional.

She says her favourite track of ours is ‘Power in the Blood’, and asks us if we’d mind if she covered it.

Well, I guess probably be alright, seeing as your a Multi-Award winning, Millionaire counter – cultural icon. Go on then.

‘Great!’ she says ‘But do you mind if I change it a bit?’ I don’t like the bit where it says ‘I will be ready for the War’I’m gonna sing ‘I’ll be ready for Peace!’

Uh…ok.

Though It might be a little confusing, seeing as the entire song is a berserker’s battle cry, a furious call for secular Jihad had against all bourgeois agents of capitalist exploitation, and a martyrs pledge to the cause of bloody class revolution. But if you want to make a nice little folk ballad out of that, knock yourself out, sister.

© Orlando Harrison 2012