In 1980, fresh off a weekend stretch of Doctor Who reruns and a slightly expired bag of mushrooms, Billy Noknees burst into a London studio claiming he had finally cracked it.

“I’ve got it,” he shouted, bursting through the door in a galaxy-print cape.
“The answer to life. The universe. EVERYTHING.”

Producer Gavin “Bang” Thimble, accustomed to Billy’s grand declarations, merely sipped his tea and hit record.

What followed was The Message—a three-minute, bass-drenched, celestial soul-funk odyssey in which Billy, despite promising revelations about the meaning of existence, sang nothing but elongated vocalisations.

The track begins with a drum break, the drummer just willing the rest of the band to start. Billy enters like a prophet floating through space, arms outstretched, eyes wide, and mouth full of the divine.

And then…

"Ooooooohhhh… Aaaaahhhhhh… OOOOOHHHH… AAAAHHHHH…"

That’s it.

No verses.
No chorus.
Just Billy, moaning melodically like a man on the edge of revelation but refusing—refusing—to put it into words.

Midway through the track, the band swells into a full-blown cosmic jam, complete with interstellar bass, laser guitar riffs, and a triangle solo played by a man in a silver bodysuit who no one remembers hiring. Billy levitates (emotionally), eyes closed, still singing:

"Ooooooohhh… (rising!) …Aaaaahhhh… (descending!)"

Gavin Thimble begged for lyrics. Any lyrics. But Billy simply whispered:

“Words are too small for what I know now.”

The record label refused to release it, calling it “a choir of sheep in space”, and the master tape was boxed up and shelved. Billy defended it as

“the most honest thing I’ve ever sung.”

For decades, The Message became a whispered legend—The Song With No Words, The Silent Truth, Billy’s Broken Enlightenment.

That is, until 2018, when a master reel labelled “DON’T BOTHER” was discovered in an old studio basement in Kent—right behind a box of disco flutes and a broken coffee machine.

Now remastered with the magic of AI, The Message is presented in all its glorious non-specificity. The original sleeve, designed by Billy himself, features a painting of a pirate ship, for no reason whatsoever.

So sit back. Breathe deep. Let go of meaning.
Because sometimes, the answer to everything… is just a vibe.
“The Message” is here. And it is… whatever you want it to be

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)

Abba

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