Guardian Cryptic 29618 Tramp

by

Thank you to Tramp.  Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across
1. So, taxis on rank outside pub; one sounding horn (11)
SAXOPHONIST : Anagram of(… rank/to sort) SO, TAXIS ON containing(outside) PH(abbrev. for “public house”, in short, a pub).

9. Being in America fancy that new motor, retiring earlier (7)
RACCOON : [ COO!(like “fancy that!”, an exclamation of surprise) + N(abbrev. for “new”) ] placed after(… earlier) reversal of(…, retiring) CAR(informally called a “motor”).
Defn: Creature/….

10. Swear whenever irritable drinking (7)
TESTIFY : IF(whenever/every time, as in “If you do that again, you’ll be punished”) contained in(… drinking) TESTY(irritable/grumpy).
Defn: …/state on oath.

11. They order madras, not when drunk (9)
MANDATORS : Anagram of(… when drunk) MADRAS, NOT.
Defn: … /exercise control over others.

12. Heavy metal fan to leave gathering on bike at front (5)
GREBO : GO(to leave/depart) containing(gathering) [ RE(with reference to/on) + 1st letter of(… at front) “bike” ].
Defn: …/a youth favouring heavy metal or punk rock music.

13. Bend ruler with no metres on (4)
ARCH : “monarch”(ruler, say, a king or queen) minus(with no) [ “m”(abbrev. for “metres”, units of distance) + “on” ].

14. This has chromatic scales for harpist to play (6-4)
PARROT-FISH : Anagram of(… to play) FOR HARPIST.
Defn: …, but not musical/music scales.
Beaked and colourful:

16. They’re in fast car describing rubbish acceleration (10)
GLITTERATI : GTI(abbrev. for “Grand Tourer Injection” from “Gran Turismo Iniezione”, denoting a high performance/fast car with a fuel-injection engine) containing(describing) [ LITTER(rubbish left lying in an open or public place) + A(symbol for “acceleration” in physics) ].
Defn: …/they are members of the fashionable set.

19. Men in jazz show (4)
CATS : Double defn: 1st: Slang for “guys” among jazz enthusiasts; and 2nd: Musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber based on a collection of poetry by T.S. Eliot.

20. Ring true legend, ultimately getting into a party (3,2)
ADD UP : Last letter of(…, ultimately) “legend” contained in(getting into) [ A + DUP(abbrev. for the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland) ].
Defn: …/make sense.

21. Old record label into rock’s musical intervals (9)
SEMITONES : EMI(old/former British record label, since taken over by Universal Music) contained in(into) STONE(a small piece of rock)’S .

23. Hold swingers at either side to screw (7)
STOWAGE : 1st or last letter of(… at either side) “swingers” + TO + WAGE(an amount of salary/screw).

24. Hopeful? Initially getting off painkillers (7)
ASPIRIN : “aspiring”(hopeful/ambitious) minus 1st letter of(Initially … off) “getting”.

25. Arrange band in part of theatre (5,6)
DRESS CIRCLE : DRESS(to arrange/to style hair or to line up troops) + CIRCLE(a ring/a band).

Down
1. Support minor criminal in old age? (6,9)
SECOND CHILDHOOD : SECOND(to support/champion) + CHILD(a minor/person below the age of full legal responsibility) + HOOD(slang for a gangster/criminal).

2. People in south taken in by foolish hoax (5)
XHOSA : S(abbrev. for “south”) contained in(taken in by) anagram of(foolish) HOAX.
Defn: An ethnic group of people in South Africa.

3. First woman occasionally read letters for Post Office on top (7)
PANDORA : 1st and 3rd letters of(occasionally) “read” placed below(… on top, in a down clue) [ P AND O ](or PO, letters/abbrev. for “Post Office”].
Defn: … who was created, according to Greek mythology.

4. Slower operator holding up old phone company (7)
OBTUSER : USER(operator of a machine or equipment) placed below(holding up, in a down clue) [ O(abbrev. for “old”) + BT(abbrev./popular name for British Telecom, a phone company).
Defn: …/descriptive of one who is less intelligent/dimmer.

5. Wearing spectacles to show wisdom (8)
INSIGHTS : IN(wearing/clothed in) + SIGHTS(spectacles/places or events that are visually interesting).

6. Regularly told migraine affected face: its connected with facial muscles (10,5)
TRIGEMINAL NERVE : Anagram of(… affected) [ 1st and 3rd letters of(Regularly) “told” + MIGRAINE] + NERVE(boldness or, informally, face).
Defn: One of a pair of nerves that stimulate the facial muscles that result in biting and chewing.
The clue is missing an apostrophe?

7. Seeing caramel in order for custard (5,8)
CRÈME ANGLAISE : Anagram of(… in order) SEEING CARAMEL.
Defn: A light sweetened … from French cuisine, used with desserts.

8. Guessing John, finally is eighty: posh spread? (13)
HYPOTHESISING : Anagram of(… spread) [ last letter of(…, finally) “John” + IS EIGHTY: POSH ].

15. Break crockery over on side (8)
STOPPAGE : Reversal of(… over) POTS(examples of crockery) placed above(on, in a down clue) PAGE(one side of a sheet of paper).
Defn: …/a pause.

17. Romeo escorts dashing people (7)
RUSHERS : R(letter represented by “Romeo” in the phonetic alphabet) + USHERS(escorts/guides).

18. Part of victim panic-stricken: they’re beaten with sticks (7)
TIMPANI : Hidden in(Part of) “victim panic-stricken”.

22. Item for discussion along with image (5)
TOPIC : TO(along with/accompanying, as in “he tapped his feed to the beat of the music”) + PIC(short for “picture”/an image).

105 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29618 Tramp”

  1. Thanks Tramp and scchua

    I loved this puzzle. Only problem it was over too quickly. I thought it was going to be a write in but testify obtuser held me up. Parrot fish was my favourite

  2. This looked impossible last night but got there in the end. Lots of googling but not as bad as yesterday. I do use the check button a lot though, can’t imagine doing it on paper…. Is it cheating to bung in the -ing and -ed participles and check? It feels wrong. COTD: TESTIFY. Thanks Tramp and scchua.

  3. @Ricardo – 😀 not cheating as there are no rules. I will say that I got much better at Prizes and Azed etc (IE same constraints as pen and paper) when I stopped checking

  4. Thank you for the blog. This is a tribute to my friend, Supertramp legend, crossword lover, and all-round top bloke, John Helliwell who turns 80 today. Happy birthday, John.

  5. Thanks Tramp and scchua
    Some lovely clues – MANDATORS (for the late night sober curry image!), PARROT FISH, and GLITTERATI favourites.
    Some oddities, though. I had never heard of GREBO. “If” for “whenever” is a bit of a stretch, despite your valiant attempt to justify it, scchua.. Why plural “painkillers” for singular ASPIRIN? Surely a misprint in 6d (though it doesn’t affect the clue) – it’s, not its. “Along with” for TO is another stretch, again despite your example.
    I didn’t see the parsing of STOWAGE.

  6. I really like Tramps puzzles but 12 was beyond me.
    It’s not in my Chambers and when. I googled it, it seemed to point to someone liking Indie rock in the territory of Jude Bellingham or Robert Plant.
    You live and learn -like yesterday’s marsupial posing as a rodent!!

  8. Good fun, with some clever constructions and nicely misleading surfaces. GREBO was new to me (I do not move in such circles 🙂 ), but the wordplay led me (slowly) there.

    Lots to like, for me especially: SAXOPHONIST, CREME ANGLAISE, TRIGEMINAL NERVE, GLITTERATI, PARROT FISH.

    Thanks to Neil and scchua

  10. I loved this from start to finish with lots of ticks. GREBO was the only uh! Brilliant. Happy birthday John.

    Ta Tramp & scchua.

  11. Delightful to see Tramp back, it feels like it’s been ages. I always enjoy the vocabulary he uses, and here GREBO really made me smile – one of the many words at school for people into various forms of rock (emos and sweatheads were the others, although the precise distinctions now escape me).

    Thanks both.

  13. GREBO conjured up an image of long-haired, a bit on the greasy side, black, chain and leather clad, teenagers from my youth – I can even put names to a few people I’d connect to this. It’s where the word surfaced from.

    Fun crossword – and as someone who saw the original Supertramp’s Famous Last Words tour in London, July 1983, the last with Roger Hodgson, I’m now trying to work out key words.

    Thank you Tramp and scchua.

  14. Lovely puzzle, and a pleasure to be reminded of the GREBO – one of those words from my long-ago youth that I’d almost forgotten. Thanks to Tramp for the explanation behind 8d and 1a, and a very happy birthday to the man himself.

  15. I could not parse 16ac apart from LITTER = rubbish; 23ac; the AND bit of 3d.

    New for me: CREME ANGLAISE; TRIGEMINAL NERVE; GREBO.

  16. Reminds me of Tramp’s marvellous tribute to Supertramp’s Crime of the Century last October. SAXOPHONIST and HYPOTHESISING are lovely.

  19. Great Friday puzzle.
    The trigeminal nerve actually conveys sensation from the face (movement is via the facial nerve!)

  20. SAXOPHONIST
    I think ‘rank’ in the cryptic reading is an adjective, meaning foul.
    ASPIRIN (muffin@5)
    As per Collins both ASPIRIN and ASPIRINs can be used as the plural of ASPIRIN.
    And ‘painkillers’ works better in the surface.
    ‘if vs whenever’ and ‘to vs along with’: Eager to hear what others may say.

    Thanks Tramp and scchua.

  21. PANDORA
    Post Office=PO
    To my understanding. the ‘letters for’ bit should be read as ‘letters for PO–>P AND O’

  24. Great to see Tramp back!

    Like AlanC @10, I loved it from start to finish. 1ac was a brilliant start, along with all the other long answers – I love this grid – and I had ticks for it and HYPOTHESISING before Tramp’s explanation. Between them, they provide the icing on the cake, plus the cherry on top!

    Other favourites were 9ac RACCOON, 14ac PARROT-FISH, 20ac ADD UP (part of the tribute?), 3dn PANDORA and 4dn OBTUSER.

    Many thanks to Tramp and scchua – and Happy Birthday, John. 😉

  25. I’ve noticed that Northern Irish people will say whenever, when they just mean when.
    oed.com: “whenever … 2. 1655– … At the very time or moment when; as soon as. (Now only in Scottish and Irish English use.) Last cited:
    “1875 And whenever my tent was set up I went to sleep in spite of the wind. A. Wilson, Abode of Snow xxxviii. 360″ — [He was Scottish.]
    And when can mean if:
    “when … 3.a. a1225– With the notion of time modified by or merged with that of connection: in the, or any, case in which; in the, or any, circumstances in which. Sometimes almost conditional, with the sense of ‘if’. …” Last sighted:
    “2021 When clients see economical vulnerability, they’re more likely to push boundaries. New York Times Magazine 23 May 57/1

  27. Much to enjoy here, especially some very long anagrams which are always a joy to unravel. Could I have come up with “trigeminal nerve” if asked to list nerves I knew? No. But given the anagram fodder and the last word it popped out of the cruciverbal ether somehow. It’s amazing that we know so much more than we think we know and just need the right stimulus.

    I’m afraid the theme was right over my head (as was “grebo” – wasn’t he the one who shot first in Star Wars? Or was that “greedo”?). Even with the theme explained the only reference I can see is “saxophonist”. Perhaps the more enlightened can help the ignorati among us to appreciate what is going on?

    My earworm for today is recalling people speaking isiXhosa with its wonderful tones and clicks.

  28. I’ve often wondered what the GREBO chant that you hear shouted at rock concerts actually means or stands for. Wasn’t even sure if it was spelled with an i or an e in the middle. Now I know, having looked it up as a result of it appearing here. OBTUSER and loi STOWAGE were the other two slightly unfamiliar ones this morning. This last, I suppose, as opposed to Steerage for the not so well off passengers on the same ship. Really enjoyed the solve…

  29. 6d TRIGEMINAL NERVE came up in a theme just last Phiday.
    8d … And I knew it had to be someone’s 80th (Oak)🎂Birthday. I was “Guessing” Sir Elton, but he’s a mere youngster of 77. A very nice clue. 🙂

  30. Quite tough today, but it is Friday… Lots of misdirection and some interesting anagrams. Too much reverse parsing on my part for my liking but that’s down to me. I parsed ARCH as (M)arch = a ruler of the Marches, but your explanation works far better scchua.

    I really liked TESTIFY, PARROT-FISH, SAXOPHONIST, PANDORA, ASPIRIN and HYPOTHESISING (posh being posh for once!).

    GREBO brought back some distant memories once I’d dredged it up. I thought it was a Midlands term and not more widely known?

    I share muffin’s quibble on TO as a substitute for ‘along with’ – it doesn’t really work for me.

    Thanks to Tramp for the challenge and for dropping in to explain the tribute (happy birthday John!) and to scchua for the blog and pics. Have a good weekend everyone 😎.

  31. Just had to play Logical to hear his wicked sax riff, Super indeed! Great puzzle, loved the chromatic scales! Thanks Tramp and Scchua.

  32. Bravo to Nigel S @19 for taking Tramp to task for confusing his cranial nerves [I had to have a superficial parotidectomy (!) some years ago, and it was the facial nerve that the surgeon took great pains not to damage].

    A mild complaint to scchua for describing CREME ANGLAISE as an item of French cuisine, though they certainly use it. As its name suggests, it was the standard pouring custard that Brits slathered over their puddings – until Alfred Bird invented the cornflour version because of his wife’s egg allergy.

  33. Yes, good to see the Tramp back again.

    I liked the wordplay for GREBO, although I DNK the word. I also liked the surface for PARROT-FISH and the good anagram for HYPOTHESISING. TRIGEMINAL NERVE was a write-in for me. I’m no anatomist but Wiki says: the trigeminal nerve (lit. triplet nerve), also known as the fifth cranial nerve, cranial nerve V, or simply CN V, is a cranial nerve responsible for sensation in the face and motor functions such as biting and chewing. The definition (Being in America) for RACCOON was somewhat vague, but then I suppose no more than ‘river’ or ‘boy’ etc.

    Thanks Tramp and scchua.

  36. I like a good Tramp and this was indeed a good one! Helped a lot by long answers but a few tough challenges along the way nevertheless. All my favourites have already been canvassed. Thanks, FrankieG@34 and 35 for the easy link to “The Logical Song” – brilliant stuff! Thanks very much to Tramp and Scchua for an enjoyable puzzle and colourful blog.

  39. Thanks for the blog, very neat set of clues , GLITTERATI stood out but many others .CATS the only clue I was not keen on for several reasons.
    GREBO still around in the 80s, scruffy urchins who liked heavy metal , like Ronald@28 I remember the chants at gigs. Also shouts of Wally in the queues outside, not sure why, people say it is the name of the baby born at Woodstock but I am sceptical .

  40. I loved this puzzle and appreciate it even more with Tramp’s explanation of his tribute. Favourite for me was the clever misdirection of PARROT FISH, after quite a few other music themed answers convinced it would be another of those. Ticks also for the lovely anagrams HYPOTHESISING and SAXOPHONIST, as well as PANDORA and OBTUSER.
    Thanks scchua for the explanations (STOWAGE, GLITTERATI), for the colourful blog and the lovely Stan Getz saxophone music.
    And thanks to Tramp for the fine puzzle.

  41. I’m another who enjoyed this tremendously. I thought a grebo was an old fashioned 70s biker. (Now they’re old bikers in their 70s)

  42. …”a member of any alternative subculture” is a bigger umbrella under which bikers or greasers or simply people with long hair might fit, apart from the heavy metal/punk rock theme. GREBO often loudly chanted these days at high profile soccer games, too. Aimed at individuals like the Chelsea player Cucurella, perhaps, or even Man City player Jack Grealish, though I think he’s had a recent trim.

  43. [I saw a tip on buying a used car once. Check the preset radio stations. If they are all heavy metal, the transmission is buggered!]

  44. I take my hat off to anybody who found this easy. I did get there in the end barring 19A, and it got a little easier as I tuned in to Tramp’s wavelength and the Down clues provided some crossers. A tough but fun challenge.

    Grebo was my jorum of the day and LOI.

  46. [Robi @45: A more decorous and up-to-date mnemonic, as VIII is now usually called vestibulocochlear rather than auditory 🙂 ]

  49. This was very entertaining, the standout for me being PARROT-FISH with the clever play on “Chromatic scales”. Brilliant.

    Roz @39: my better half believes that the shouts of “Wally” at rock gigs originated with someone looking for their dog of that name at one of the Isle of Wight festivals.

    Many thanks Tramp and scchua.

  50. Thank you Tramp and scchua and happy birthday to the SAXOPHONIST! GREBO new to me, Wikipedia says that it is the Stourbridge/Leicester scene led by Pop Will Eat Itself, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, and Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, which like Toad the Wet Sprocket are bands whose name I know but whose music not so much. Anyway very enjoyable.

  51. I was delighted to encounter a Tramp first thing this morning and what a pleasure it was to solve. Not even an eyebrow raise for GREBO which I recall from schooldays and Chambers is bang on in its definition: A devotee of heavy metal or grunge music, with unkempt hair and clothes which seems to be pretty much what most posters seem to be vaguely recalling, be reminded off, conjure up ideas of … Some super anagrams with SAXOPHONIST, rightly, taking the biscuit.

    Thanks Tramp and scchua

  52. Thanks both,
    Gre(e)bo is the name of Nanny Ogg’s cat in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. Never missed the opportunity for an allusion, did our Terry.

  53. Thank you Lord Jim@49 , do you know which one ? I could ask my mother, I was at IofW 1969 but MINUS eight months old.
    A typical GREBO in the 80s was hirsute and hircine .

  54. [I found this about Wally: “Wally” was a chant that originated at rock concerts in the 1960s or 1970s. It was often heard at the Isle of Wight Festival and the 1979 Led Zeppelin Knebworth Concerts.
    Explanation
    The chant may have started when the name “Wally” was announced multiple times over a loudspeaker. The crowd picked up the chant and began shouting “Wally” at rock concerts across Britain.     ]

  55. Thanks, Tramp, for a very entertaining puzzle. I was around at the time but the whole grebo thing passed me by and I couldn’t get there from the wp so a DNF. As NS@19 pointed out, for medics, “facial muscles” are the superficial ones that control your facial expression and are served by the Facial Nerve. The trigeminal supplies the muscles of mastication -chewing- which aren’t really in the ‘face’, but are admittedly nearby. Similarly pernicketily, painkillers (pl) raised a slight humph for me as for Muffin@5, … though neither quibble got in the way of the solve.

  56. All great fun, although much more straightforward than a “normal “ Tramp offering.

    I don’t think I’ve heard the word GREBO since about 1974 – when it definitely meant something akin to a greaser, long unkempt hair etc. No idea how it came to be associated with punks.

    Thanks Tramp and scchua

  57. When, in my yoof, I was described as a “greebo” it had two Es and referred to my mode of transport. The word was a variation of “greaser”. The musical preference followed: we didn’t like what the mods rode or listened to.
    Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog.

  58. When SAXOPHONIST was FOI followed straight away by XHOSA I thought we might be in for a sax/jazz theme. Xhosa Cole is a rising star on the UK jazz scene, and from Brum, but Tramp obviously just wanted a 5-letter word beginning with X. Oh well, perhaps one day. At least we got some nice tenor from Stan the Man in the blog.

  59. Loved the crossword, thanks Tramp! 23 me took a while though, not sure I like ‘swingers either side’ for s.

  61. Grebo has been around a while, I remember it being used in the 60’s and 70’s on Merseyside to describe bikers and hippies. Chambers Slang Dictionary dates it back to the 1930s as northern schools slang.

  62. [Sorry Roz @53, don’t know. Mrs LJ is too young to have gone to the festivals of 68 to 70, but that was the story she was told by older rock fans when she became one about a decade or so later.]

  63. @43 muffin. You made my day. Best quote in yonks! Never could get into heavy metal: just too old. Grew up with Lonnie, Buddy, Sammy, Tommy, Cliff et al plus trad and skiffle. Still it takes all sorts……Great sax playing in the blog -now that’s class!

  65. [ Thanks Lord Jim and Robi@54 , perhaps there are many stories . I was told the Woodstock story in the 80s , when the baby was born everyone wanted to know the name and cries of Wally passed through the crowd .
    In the 80s at Bingley Hall , Manchester Apollo etc it would always start in the queue outside. Someone would shout Wally and it would echo down the line . ]

  69. Phew – first ever completed Tramp – starting to get his disguised surfaces
    @6 – eg ‘take some aspirin’ for plural usage

  73. please dont include large graphic files in future. for some reason they take an absolute age to load on this site.

  74. Brilliant. Anyone else remember John Helliwell when he was a computer programmer in Birmingham in 1963?
    Best wishes John.

  75. In French DRESSER means to ARRANGE the presentation of a table or a dish to make them aesthetically pleasing. DRESSING can also be used in English as a synonym for PLATING.

  76. paganini @73
    I think it must be a problem at your end. scchua always enlivens his blogs with graphics, and it hasn’t caused problems before, or, indeed, today, for me at least.

  77. It is strange for painkillers – aspirin , paracetamol , ibuprofen , I never hear anyone add the s whatever the number .
    [ Thank you AlanC@72 I was banned for two months so I need to behave now . I will not even mention KPR losing to themselves on Sunday . ]

  79. Well, seeing ASPIRIN brought to mind that old joke:
    Q: “Old ‘Arry ‘Awkins ‘ad an ‘eadache. What did he need?”
    A: “A few aspirates.”
    IGMC…
    But in reality I’m having to take painkillers rather stronger than ASPIRIN at the moment: my *&$%!ing sciatica!

    All OK except for CATS (didn’t suss ‘show’ as a noun) and of course GREBO which I’d NHO – and the wordplay wasn’t all that helpful (I was wondering whether GONBO was a word). So a DNF for me today.

    Also didn’t know screw=WAGE: I was vacillating between STOWAGE and STORAGE but eventually settled for the right one!

    I saw the musical mini-theme nevertheless, in spite of missing CATS – the SAXOPHONIST playing SEMITONES on the TIMPANI (if only they had the necessary skill!).

    I like the fact that the ‘first woman’ isn’t always EVE (or LILITH, for extra-biblical pedants). Thanks PANDORA!

    Not sure I can pick a favourite out of the rest today. I’ll leave it at that.

    Thanks Tramp (except for 12a!) and scchua.

  80. muffin @78 I’m with Roz on this one. Last week I had minor surgery on my left foot and the surgeon advised me to “rake two paracetamol” if I experienced any post-op discomfort.

  81. [Zoot @58 – indeed. Jazz Samba was the first jazz LP I ever bought (I must have been about 13) and I never looked back.]

  82. [Balfour @80
    I’m reminded of the story of the GP who had a burst pipe. He phoned the plumber, who said “just put a couple of aspirins on it and I’ll be round in the morning”.]

  83. I wondered about the singular-plural mismatch in 24ac, but now that I think about it I believe I would say “take two aspirin”.

    This puzzle defeated me, specifically GREBO (of which I’d never heard) and STOWAGE (which I should have gotten).

    I loved the chromatic scales of the PARROT-FISH.

  84. Thanks Tramp for a wonderful crossword. TRIGEMINAL NERVE was my FOI, that’s how impenetrable this seemed at first but I completed the puzzle except for the nho GREBO and the parsing of STOWAGE. Lots of great clues as expected, particularly PARROT-FISH (super surface), SEMITONES, SECOND CHILDHOOD, HYPOTHESISING (though I think the comma in the surface is unnecessary), and RUSHERS. Thanks scchua for the blog.

  85. I just wanted to mention that ever since I clicked on a video of someone giving their pet RACCOON a belly rub, Facebook now regularly shows me pet raccoon videos. PS: raccoons are not suitable pets. Relatedly, to the person above who objected that “being in America” is too vague a definition: what would you prefer: nocturnal American mammal? Trash panda? Anyway, one key to a good cryptic clue is to disguise one part of speech as another, and “being in America” makes a noun look like a gerund, so it’s perfect.

  87. Balfour @81 [ I must have over 50 Getz LPs and CDs but not that one. Back then all my money went on whatever Lester Young I could find, mostly US imports costing a week’s rent. My first Getz was The Steamer.]

  89. If anyone’s still reading this:

    In 1979, I was five. A song came on Top of the Pops: it was the Logical Song by Supertramp. My dad peered over his glasses and asked: “what’s that?” and turned it up. My older brother, Stephen, was a teenager and he bought Breakfast In America on its release and Famous Last Words in ‘82. My twin brother, Craig, and I used to ask mum to put these records on the turntable for us. We’d sit there with pots and pans bashing them with wooden spoons pretending to be drummers.

    Through secondary school, we’d save our school dinner money and nip into Wigan to buy Supertramp cassettes. Over our teenage years we bought books, bootlegs, posters, tour programmes, press cuttings…. For Christmas in 1987 I asked could I get my World Tour 1983 poster framed; I still have that. Without being big-headed, there is not much we don’t know about Supertramp. In 1997, Rick Davies formed a new version of the band and they hit the road. Craig and I watched them at the Royal Albert Hall, getting all the band members’ autographs at the stage door and at Manchester where we met virtuoso crack LA session musician, Carl Verheyen. We also saw them in 2002 in Edinburgh, where John Helliwell was joined on stage by his then 16–year-old son William on trumpet and at the legendary Summer Pops gig in Liverpool.

    In 2005, when I started setting cryptic crosswords, I chose the name Tramp. Some six years later when I eventually got published in the Guardian, I was contacted by Supertramp legend John Helliwell as he solves the Guardian cryptic crossword every morning: a custom he picked up from his late mother. John lives 40 miles from me and we’ve become good friends. We meet up every year for our Breakfast in Grange. Last September, John’s wife and daughter-in-law invited Emma and me to a surprise 80th birthday party they were going to throw for John. I wrote a puzzle to honour the occasion and that appeared in the Guardian yesterday. We attended the party last night and it was incredible.

    I met some marvellous people at the party (including Test Match Special’s Aggers, Peter Henderson, who produced Breakfast in America and Ramzi, who runs the Supertramp Fan page on Facebook). I was too nervous to approach legendary record producer Ken Scott. It was a privilege to see John and his friends and I had a good chat with Carl Verheyen and his wife; he’s one of the best guitarists in the world who’s played on countless hits, but, is such a lovely guy. It was an unbelievable night. I want to thank John’s family for inviting me. They say you should never meet your heroes, but that’s not the case with John.

    Happy 80th birthday John.

  91. Tramp@89…so glad I decided to pop back on here today to read and enjoy your lovely, evocative account. I hope others do too…

  97. Thank you for sharing this with us Neil. As others have said, simply lovely. It reminded me of my reaction to the Logical Song when I first heard it. It just seemed to stand out as something quite special.

  98. Mmm – I’ve listened to “The logical song” on Youtube, and it seems nothing at all special. Not much of a tune. What am I missing?

  99. Tramp @89: It’s great hearing that bit about your history & the origin of your ‘setting name.’ Thanks.

  100. Tramp@89: thanks for the lovely story of your relationship with Supertramp and John Helliwell, and my apologies for not knowing who he was, in spite of knowing and liking the Logical Song.

    muffin@98: de gustibus non est disputandum: if it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t.

  101. I don’t usually comment here, But I look at comments on Friday’s cryptic to get an idea about the Saturday Prize and Everyman crosswords! I happened to see a comment about what Tramp wrote here. Absolutely brilliant story, thank you, Tramp! I had to go and read it all out to my husband

  103. Tramp@89 thanks for decrypting the birthday reference. I’m a generation older so my heroes were BS&T, Tull, Cream and Iron Butterfly. Didn’t meet any of them in my part of the world though. Solved some long ones here, muddled through others – looked up facial nerves, bu had to have looked for cranial nerves I guess . Enjoyed your puzzle – there’s a thrill to facing a 10+ long word! Thanks schhua.

  104. I didn’t start this until Sunday and I was still doing it today (Tuesday). In today’s Guardian I read something that included the word GRRBO, which I knew anyway, but it hadn’t previously come to the surface of my concrete brain.

    I was thrilled to get TRIGEMINAL, but missed out on CATS and STOWAGE – guessed wrong for the middle letter, and couldn’t remember ‘screw’ for wage.

    Thanks to Tramp (great that you were at the birthday party!) and Scchua.

  105. Solved all but GREBO. Didn’t know the word, but it was gettable in hindsight by the wordplay

    Also, as I was looking for yesterday’s blog, I accidentally got a glimpse of this blog soon after starting the puzzle. Unfortunately, I saw RACOON and couldn’t un-see it! I probably would have solved it eventually, but who knows!

    Anyway, a delightful puzzle, made even more so by the interesting, enjoyable, and varied comments, especially Tramp’s @4, 48, and 89 giving the subtext

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