UNIT Bentworth Signal Box (On Sports Day).

Note: all tracks recorded under the names Academy 23 or UNIT are the property of DNA Records and protected by copyright, regardless of who wrote the works concerned. This is a track from Trains Run On My One Track Mind, our 55th album, recorded in 2025.

At the school Sports Day we were running but we’re going nowhere.

Stanton, Perkins, Thornton and myself were running fast
as if this final day in school might be our very last.
The summer holiday was only fifteen days away
yet this of course cannot explain what happened on that day.

Our rugby shirts and scanty linen shorts did not protect
our legs from stinging nettles as our thighs were slowly wrecked
by scratches, cuts and blisters but we did not really care.
We sought a place of privacy. We looked everywhere.

We took the railway bed to Bentworth in the teeming rain,
to shelter in the signal box for reasons I’ll explain.
Perkins hid under his shirt a tatty magazine
which featured the most sexy teenage girls we’d ever seen.

Those wooden steps were rotten and the door hung off its frame;
to us it was a sitting room by any other name.
We huddled on the floorboards around that magazine.
What we did next I’ll not describe as it was quite obscene.

At the school Sports Day we were running but we’re going nowhere.

As Perkins chugged away I thought I heard an ugly sound:
lewd laughter from behind me but yet when I looked around
I only saw the broken windows and the damaged wall.
Suddenly I did not feel so randy after all.

Stanton yelled a warning and he pointed at a face
that peered at us from outside – an absolute disgrace!
It was a boy around our age with hardly any hair
yet when we dashed outside we could not see him anywhere.

Was he the lad who giggled at us? I could not decide
yet we could not explain his presence even though we tried.
Where was he from? Where did he go? We hunted everywhere
but we could find no trace of him so was he ever there?

Andy Martin – Vocals, Hammond Organ, Birds.
Rachel Greenberg – Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Vocal.
Keilan Knight – 5 String Bass Guitar.
Karen Elliot – Drums, Vocal.

Text & Music – Andy Martin.

You may be interested in these other tracks by UNIT, all of which are available on our Rumble channel.

The Earth Is Finite.
Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes.
Osaka Boy.
Barbara’s Bridge.
A Study Of Alkaline Metals.
The 613 Mitzvot.
The Unwanted.
A Song For Eric Cooper.
Amery Hill School.
Realise Your Potential.
1985.
Resonance Rocks Out.
The 4th Horseman.
The Noahide Laws.
Hup Soon Heng.
Eagle.
When We Were Friends.

In addition we have 11 books available in PDF format free on request.

Chinese Cinema 1905 – 2005
The Essays – Articles, Essays & Monographs on science and culture
Not In Front Of The Children: A Study Of Grange Hill 1978 – 1993
Fast – Clean – Cheap (A Compendium)
Civil Disobedience – A Collection Of Short Stories For Children
Behind The Bike Shed – A Novel For Children
Grange Hill 1994 – 2008
The No Nation Interview
Birds, Bridges & Boys – Short Stories For Adults
Questo Temporis – Short Stories For Adults
School Report – A Novel For Adults