Momus - The Most Important Man Alive
Mount Parnassus is a barren place, mostly limestone and scrub vegetation, but the lower slopes offer enough space for a scenic, if rather cramped 18 holes. One clear spring day in 1998, in the middle of his Greek golfing holiday, it was there that Nick "Momus" Currie made one of the most important discoveries of his life. On the practice greens wearing brogues and plus fours, was a strangely familiar figure. The tapering chin, the hollow cheeks, the receding hairline, the carbon fibre putter: it could be none other than Howard Devoto.

Devoto had dropped out of the public eye during the '90s, and with nothing to go on the press had started to concoct a variety of plausible rumours. He was working on an art project with former Baader-Meinhof members. He had renounced music and had devoted his efforts to the introduction of ascetic values to Theraveda Buddhism. He had a milk round in Lincoln. The truth turned out to be rather more prosaic: retreating to the home of the muses of inspiration, he had been running a course on songwriting techniques to a select group of students: Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Aphrodite, Ares and their immediate families.

After a hesitant, standoffish start, Currie and Devoto managed to hit it off. While the precise details of this historic meeting will never be known, we can be thankful that by the end of the day they had retreated to the school's recording studio to record this paean to their respective modesties.

All true, I swear. Every word.

Momus - The Most Important Man Alive
(alternate download)