He's talking about how he was at art school and how everyone had a Sword of Damocles hanging over their head about the inevitable years of National Service in the military afterwards. All of a sudden one day the Government relaxes the requirements, and he's left in a hilarious Stockholm-like limbo.
"Suddenly you felt like you had two free years, but it was a complete illusion, of course. You didn't know what to do with it. Even your parents didn't know what to do with those years, because they wee expecting you to disappear at eighteen. It all happened so fast. My life had been plodding along nicely until I found out there was no National Service. There was no way I was going to get out of this goddamn morass, the council estate, the very small horizons. Of course, if I'd done it, I'd probably be a general by now. There's no way to stop a primate. If I'm in, I'm in. When they got me in the Scouts, I was a patrol leader in three months. I clearly like to run guys about. Give me a platoon, I'll do a good job. Give me a company, I'll do eve better. give me a division, and I'll do wonders. I like to motivate guys, and that's what came in handy with the Stones. I'm really good at pulling a bunch of guys together. If I can pull a bunch of guys useless Rastas into a viable band [he's talking about the Wingless Angels] and also the Winos, a decidedly unruly band of men, I've got something there. It's not a matter of cracking the whip, it's a matter of just sticking around, doing it, so they know you're in there, leading form the front and not from behind.And to me, it's not a matter of who's number on, it's what works".
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