D AY I N T H E L I F E
When I’m on the road touring I do miss detachment nights Not even a 12-hour round trip to parade can dampen punk rocker Tim Scargill’s passion for the ACF 07.30 I’m a fairly early riser but I do have the curse of an active mind during the night. I often wake up with song lyrics going round my head – I have a notepad at the side of the bed to write them down. If I wait until morning they’re gone. After I’m up I’ll check emails, music-related and ACF. 10.00 Poach an egg for breakfast. Spend some time with my lovely wife.
10.30 I do some work: writing songs, music for films, a bit of my biography, lesson plans for ACF. This of course is if I’m not on tour with my band Sham 69, and we tour a lot. A week tomorrow we’re playing Iceland, for example. It’s a constant in my life, a part of me. Singing has always been a massive form of release. And my music is growing with me: I’m still writing about angst, Tim Scargill joined the ACF aged 11
MEET TIM
teen pregnancy and drugs but from the perspective of a moaning 55-year-old man.
13.30 If it’s a Monday or Thursday (ACF nights) I’ll set off to catch the train to my detachment in Redhill in Surrey. I live in Hastings so it’s a three-and-a-half hour journey. I know it sounds mad, but I used to live near the detachment and when I moved I couldn’t leave those cadets. They’re my family and now I’m theirs. Cadets were crying when I talked about leaving, so how could I? On the train I’ll read, doodle, finish lesson plans, order popcorn (I do the NAAFI). I’m always thinking of things to entertain the cadets, to give them opportunities.
19.30 Parade starts. All day the cadets have had their teachers and their problems at school and we have to make up for that – go that extra nine yards. 21.30 Cadets go home. At the end of the night you might be left snarling at an empty crisp packet on the floor, but then you hear them all giggling as they drift off into the distance and you think, ‘That’s what it’s all about’. When I’m on the road touring I do miss detachment nights.
22.00 Back on the train. 01.30 I get home and go to bed.
34 ACF WINTER 2017/18
Tim juggles ACF with touring with his band
Tim Scargill, 55 Rank: Sergeant Instructor Joined: 1973 (as a cadet); 2014 (as a CFAV) County: Surrey Day job: Frontman of punk band Sham 69; film score writer Why I joined the ACF: My grandad was in the Army and that got me into collecting military cap badges. I joined the cadets at 11. I had a bit of a troubled childhood and my dad was violent, but for two nights a week my mum knew I’d be safe. One of the beautiful things that hasn’t changed about cadets is the compassion. The cadets became my surrogate parents. They saved my bacon. Now I’m kind of paying that back.
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