On the way there, Alistair, the bass player, insisted we stop at a chemist. He came back with a 500ml brown glass bottle. He’d studied chemistry at university, so he knew all the best drugs. As soon as we got to the motel, he unscrewed the cap and a sickly smell filled the room.
‘It’s a funny drug, ether,’ he said, as we passed the bottle around and inhaled, almost to the point of blackout. ‘It has the effect of separating the hemispheres of the brain in such a way that you receive messages on one side, then about a second later get the same message on the other side.’
The news was on TV. I had the distinct feeling I’d seen this show before.”
Excerpt from Going Down – THE BITS THAT DIDN’T FIT