Test Driving The New Prius: A Radio Play by Jim Fry and Luke Haines (RSD 25)

“A man can only see clearly when he has been blind drunk for 30 years.” – Lord Reith. This is not the story of a man at the top of his game. This is the story of a man at the end of his game. Let’s call him Endgame Man. Endgame Man is aged somewhere in his 50s. Success has dabbled with him and has long been dabbling elsewhere. The last chance saloon closed on Sunday night and it’s now a nothing Tuesday afternoon.

The action begins on a bench in a scrubby enclosure in front of an estate in North London. Endgame Man’s’ daily trip to the Costcutter makes Captain Willard’s journey down the Nung River look like a gentle punt down The Cam.

‘Test Driving The New Prius’ is a 35-minute radio play (with sound effects) written and performed by Jim Fry (Earl Brutus, Pre New) and Luke Haines. (The Auteurs, Baader Meinhof) Just as that other modernist masterpiece Ulysses depicted a day in the life of Leopold Bloom, Test Driving The New Prius follows the life in a daze of Endgame Man. In this tale of derring-do, our hero acts out a perilous adventure in the 400 yards between his home, his local pub, and the off-licence. With his nervous system reduced to a series of involuntary twitches and reality reduced to a background hum of decades of half-absorbed mindless daytime TV wittering, can Endgame Man get home and make it through to Wednesday with only his spirit familiars – an endless trail of 75cl bottles of Glen’s vodka to guide him?

With cameos from* Jayne MacDonald, Brian Eno, Martin Degville, and the cast of Blankety Blank (1980). *Sort of.

Written and executed by Jim Fry and Luke Haines.
Originally Broadcast as a Radio Play in 2022.
Now a limited-edition 12-inch vinyl LP.
Exclusively released for Record Store Day by Glass Modern Records.