Music is a piece of art that goes in the ears straight to the heart

I have a very good friend who I met at college when I was studying for my A’Levels. We shared a passion for live concerts and chasing autographs! I don’t think there were too many acts we didn’t see during the 80s! We didn’t see all of them together but certainly quite a few. It was a lovely bond as our excitement at seeing our favourite bands was always at the same level. She seemed to always know a lot about who was in the local area and how we might be able to stalk them!

In 1985 we went camping with my parents in Woolacombe, Devon. The first Saturday we were there it was the ‘Live Aid’ concert at Wembley. We spent the day watching it on a big TV at the campsite clubhouse! Not as glamorous as being there but a very special memory of a historic event and one I will never forget.

One time when we must have only been about 17, the same friend led me astray by taking me on an adventure! She had heard that a band called ‘King’ who had a number 2 hit in 1985 called “Love and Pride” were at a local recording studio called Parkgate Studios in Catsfield. Just to put you in the picture, I had led a very sheltered life compared to my friend in that she lived with her grandad and had a lot of independence compared to me. My parents were strict but fair. They were also quite protective of me in terms of boundaries so they often picked me up after a night out or I had a curfew if I was getting a taxi home. So when I got the invite from my friend I naively thought we were just getting the train to Battle. However, the studio was actually in a rural village approximately three miles from the station and via a number of country lanes which we navigated on foot. We managed to find the studio and quite brazenly knocked on the door!

I’m not sure how realistic our expectations were at the time in terms of how we would be received so we were astonished and delighted when we were actually invited in to the studio! The band were so friendly and took the time to personally show us round. We were in awe of the place. As well as the recording studios there was a games room with a full size snooker table and other activities. They offered us drinks and posed with us for photos.

We were also in a state of amazement by previous artists who had made recordings at the studio. They included the likes of Paul McCartney, Def Leppard, Blur, Paul Weller, Robert Smith (The Cure) to name just a few.

The most shocking thing though was our journey back home. We were walking back down the same country lanes that we’d used to get to the studio when a works van with three men in it stopped to offer us a lift and we (rather stupidly) got in the van! What were we thinking?! The answer is we were wide-eyed teenagers and far too trusting. Nevertheless we got a lift safely back to Battle Station without incident. To this day I have never told either of my parents this story! As a parent myself now I can’t imagine how horrified I would be if I found out my own daughter had done the same thing!

Those teenage years were the start of a forever love of live music. For me nothing beats the buzz of hearing the musicians and singers performing live, soaking up the charged atmosphere of eager fans and singing alongside a massive crowd to your favourite tunes.

At an even younger age, my friends and I used to avidly look forward to the ‘Radio 1 Roadshow’ which was an annual summer event hosted and broadcast by BBC Radio 1 from the 1970s through to the 1990s. In Eastbourne it was held every year on the Wishtower Slopes.

Various disc jockeys from the station would travel round mainly seaside towns to play a live set, meeting local people and playing their requests and games with give away “goodie bags” of Radio 1 gifts. The DJs were joined by the support crew, led by Tony Miles, nicknamed “Smiley Miley”. A few of the DJs I can remember from that time were Simon Mayo, Gary Davies, Mike Read, Mike Smith and Simon Bates.

There were a few regular games that some of you might remember – ‘Bits and Pieces’ where contestants from the crowd were selected to name a series of pop hits after hearing a tape containing a number of brief clips, the winner being the one who accurately identified the most. Another was ‘Smiley Miley’s Mileage Game’ where the contestants had to guess how many miles the Roadshow truck had travelled from the previous venue.

Music is personally my most powerful ‘muscle memory’. There’s nothing like a song to take you back in time. Some memories are bittersweet like memories of a good time with someone who is no longer with us. But even then, the memories are precious and as long as we still hear those songs we will always remember those good times fondly.

I would say that a large percentage of songs I hear regularly evoke memories but I’d just like to mention the ones that influenced specific eras of my life. A marketing executive, Don Draper, once described nostalgia as “a twinge in your heart is far more powerful than memory alone”.

I was brought up on a mixture of Elvis Presley, Billy Fury, the Mamas & the Papas, the Beach Boys, the Carpenters, Elton John and a bit of Country, such as Patsy Cline, Slim Whitman and Jim Reeves. My parents were very young when they had us and they are the reason my brother and I love our music so much. I can still remember my dad coming home every Thursday evening – which was weekly payday – with a comic each for me and my brother and a 45” vinyl single from the charts. He did that for years and consequently we had a pretty good family collection along with all the records my parents had also bought in the sixties. I also remember listening to Ed Stewart (Stewpot) with his Saturday morning radio show ‘Junior Choice ‘ which featured lots of silly gimmicky songs like ‘My Brother’, ‘Nellie the Elephant’ and ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’. The show was broadcast in more recent times on every Christmas Day morning between 2007 and 2015 with Ed presenting but he sadly passed away in 2016. Other presenters still play those songs at Christmas but it was never quite the same without the little boy who had belted out “Allo darling!” (with a cheeky chuckle) for almost 50 years! Another household regular on the radio on a Sunday morning was ‘Family Favourites’. I expect there were a lot of presenters but I only remember Michael Aspel and Pete Murray. When I think of that show I can almost smell the Sunday roast cooking.

Sometimes it only takes one song to bring back a thousand memories….

When I started working part-time as a teenager I also spent a lot of my own wages on records and built up my own impressive collection. I still have them all neatly stored in several carry cases, both singles and albums. In 2013 I decided to hold a party for my birthday. We’d had a rough couple of years since losing my mum and I thought it would be fun to celebrate with friends and family. I bought a new but retro style turntable and retrieved my record collection from the loft. I did try to get hold of an original ‘Dansette’ record player where the records are stacked up and drop down one at a time but unfortunately didn’t manage to get one. My dad dug out his even older collection and we organised a 45s (for my 45th) party. Only vinyl allowed, strictly no CDs! Some of the guests also bought a few of their old records to the party too. It was so much fun! My husband played DJ and we danced all night to classic tracks by Dexys Midnight Runners, Whitney Houston, Madonna, Wham, Earth Wind & Fire, Boney M, Blondie, MJ….as well as a few sixties numbers. Everyone said afterwards how much they’d enjoyed the party.

My next era of music, as a primary school child, was the Abba and glam rock phase! I had the striped knee-length Bay City Rollers socks and a tartan scarf. I also particularly loved the Rubettes ‘Sugar Baby Love’ which may just be one of the most nostalgiac songs on my list.

My parents had friends in Germany who my dad had met when he was stationed at an RAF base there before they were married. The German couple had three children, all slightly older than me and my brother, and we have many wonderful and funny memories of our visits. Sometimes we would all go on camping holidays together to Austria or Italy. They had a classic VW Campervan which we were always in awe of. My dad spoke (and can still speak) fluent German and the German children spoke very good English so we were all able to get along without too much trouble. Like many European countries, the British pop charts were very popular with the Germans and my most vivid memories are Rod Stewart’s ‘Sailing’ (partly because we always took the ferry over to France as part of our journey) and Showaddywaddy’s ‘Under the Moon of Love’ which we had all learnt the words to and made up our own dance! I also think of them all if I ever hear any traditional German music or the Bavarian Oompah bands! My brother had his own set of lederhosen but I don’t expect he will thank me for sharing that…! I also have a very funny memory of us singing Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Lost in France’ to my very frustrated and entirely unamused dad because basically we were, at that moment…..lost in France!

I can also remember vividly the night it was announced that Elvis Presley had died in 1977. I was 9 years old. My mum listened to the footage and tributes on the radio all through the night. She cried buckets but, sadly, it was only a few weeks after her own dad, my grandad, had passed away so she was already in a state of shock and grief.

The early eighties gave us more disco tracks and I remember having some school friends over after school and us all sitting in a row ‘dancing’ to the Gap Band’s ‘Oops Upside Your Head’ in our front room and my parents laughing at us! We also tried teaching my dad a dance to Lips Inc’s ‘Funky Town’. He wasn’t very good!

As the eighties moved on, the new romantic scene moved in. It was all velvet, britches, flouncy shirts and guy-liner! My first ever concert without adults, at the age of 15, was Duran Duran at the Brighton Centre with my two closest school friends. We had standing tickets and had pushed our way right to the front. One of the friends ended up passing out and she was lifted over the crowd by the security crew! She was mortified but we found it highly amusing! We said she only did it to get closer to the sexy bassist John Taylor! Many more gigs followed over the next few years – the likes of Spandau Ballet, Depeche Mode, OMD, Nik Kershaw, Howard Jones, Paul Young, Deacon Blue, A Flock of Seagulls, A-Ha, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Cult…..the list goes on! I turned it up a notch once I was at college and starting attending much bigger events at Wembley Arena or Stadium and the Milton Keynes Bowl, to see acts like U2, Simple Minds, Texas, Bobby Brown, INXS and Pet Shop Boys.

This was continued through to the very end of the eighties when I was a student at Bournemouth University and the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) was the go-to for concerts. I went with uni friends to see Terence Trent D’Arby, Wet Wet Wet, Alison Moyet, Fairground Attraction, Deacon Blue, Simply Red and, again, many more.

My brother had very different tastes in music to me during our teenage years and sported an impressive Mohican during the eighties (he used to leave the house with flat hair and find somewhere to style it while he was out, then flatten it back down before going home!). At Christmas my poor mum had the unenviable task of going into ‘Our Price’ records shop (remember those?) and having to ask for albums by ‘The Dead Kennedys’ and ‘Peter and the Test Tube Babies’ – reading them off from a piece of paper so she’d get it right! Bless her! She also got me an album by ‘Garbage’ one year and the shop assistant told her that’s exactly what it was – garbage! Rude! Nowadays we have a few more artists that we both like and often share ‘Spotify’ tunes that we think the other might like.

A mortgage and the responsibilities of being a ‘grown up’, including having children, as well as tickets becoming much more expensive, naturally slowed down the opportunities to go to concerts but I didn’t go completely ‘cold turkey’ still managing a few here and there while the children were little.

The nineties was probably the least significant era for me in terms of music, perhaps because it’s the time I became a busy mum and parenthood took over. Having said that, my love of ‘Take That’ began during that decade and I have remained a loyal fan ever since. It was certainly a good time for music particularly dance, garage, drum and bass, grunge and alternative rock. Hugely successful bands such as Oasis, Foo Fighters, Blur, Pulp, Faithless, Massive Attack, Portishead, The Prodigy, Radiohead and Moby all churned out one big hit after another. The Latin scene introduced us to J-Lo, Shakira and Ricky Martin, while hip hop and rap was reinvented to another level across the globe with artists like Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Missy Elliott, Lauren Hill and even Will Smith, who had a music career which some may think was borne out of his ‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ character. Conversely he was actually part of the duo ‘DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince’ before that and had had some success in the eighties already. The TV show was actually created as a fictionalised version of Will. Finally, the nineties saw the arrival and ‘rivalry’ of boy bands galore! Among others, Take That, Boyzone, Westlife, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC and Boyz II Men claimed their places in the battle of the male harmony vocals. The Spice Girls kicked off ‘girlpower’ around the same time but there was a bit more variety in the genres of the girl bands. B*witched, All Saints, Atomic Kitten and the Sugababes all enjoyed chart successes for a good period, with the latter two changing band members more than once. In fact Heidi Range was once a member of both Atomic Kitten and Sugababes and Jenny Frost was formerly a member of Precious who represented the UK in the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest.

On to the millennial years and a whole new era of greatness! Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Keane, Muse, Turin Brakes, Travis, Elbow, Starsailor, Amy Winehouse, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Adele – just too many to name! Some of these have never stopped producing hits and others have returned after a break.

Our little hometown of Bexhill has a somewhat acclaimed reputation for its unique Grade 1 listed Art Deco building, the first major welded steel-frame building in Britain constructed in 1935. As one of the UK’s most iconic buildings the Dela Warr Pavilion is the source of much curiosity and attracts a lot of people with an interest in architecture, art and design. Art exhibitions are held throughout the year and it is the hub of many other community events. Best of all though, it’s also a music venue, holding performances from current and mainstream to quirky and obscure! We are often quite smug when artists play there who have ‘skipped’ some of the larger, more popular venues in bigger towns. Maybe they just think it’s cool to say they’ve played there. Or perhaps they’ve heard about the 29 charity shops and come looking for a bargain! It has a very modest auditorium which makes the gigs feel very personal and intimate. No need for any big screens because you’re never far from the stage. There used to be a shop in the town centre called ‘Music’s Not Dead’ and they would hold promotions for bands who would play a short set then hang around for autographs. The owners were ardent music fans and supported local artists, new up and coming acts and blasts from the past. After getting in the queue nice and early I was lucky enough to share the room with Keane and Turin Brakes, on separate occasions, listening to fantastic live performances and having my photo taken with them. I remember going in the shop once to see if they had an album by a band called ‘The Head and the Heart’ as I’d heard quite a bit of their stuff on films and TV dramas. I was taking a conscientious break from buying music online at the time and wanted to support a local business. To be honest I didn’t think they would be stocking the album. I’m not sure who was more delighted, the guy who served me and seemed surprised and thrilled to be asked for an album by an American indie folk band or me that they had the one I wanted! Sadly the shop didn’t survive but the owners took the opportunity to collaborate with the Dela Warr Pavilion and reopened as a pop-up store, also arranging promotional events from time to time.

I think it’s fun (oh and definitely trivial!) to find out which song was number one the day you were born or other significant life events. I always thought mine was ‘Lady Madonna’ by the Beatles but you have to be careful how you Google it because I now know that was number one but only in Australia. The UK number one the day I was born was Cliff Richard’s ‘Congratulations’. In America it was Otis Redding’s ‘Sitting on the Dock of the Bay’ – a timeless track for sure.

Similarly, to my delight I found out the number one single the day I gave birth to my first born was Take That’s ‘Back for Good’ and always thought that. However, it was actually only number one until the day before and I gave birth at 2.14 am on the day Oasis knocked them off the top slot with ‘Some Might Say’. It goes rather downhill after that. In my second son’s case, REALLY downhill! Teletubbies were at number one with ‘Eh-oh’ the day he was born! It’s actually quite apt though because he is a ‘middle-ish’ child and has all the traits of one! If you could knock it over, trip up it, break it or fall in it, he did! “Eh-oh” indeed! My daughter’s birthday song was Shanks and Bigfoot with ‘Sweet like Chocolate’ and last, but not least, our youngest son’s was Will Young with ‘Leave Right Now’. He was born during the time when the TV reality talent shows such as Pop Idol (shortly before X Factor) had become regular Saturday night viewing and for many years after there was always a fight to beat the winner’s song to the top of the charts for the Christmas number one slot.

This blog is so much longer than I intended but I can’t help getting carried away when I talk about my biggest passion. My taste is very eclectic and I can’t imagine only enjoying one genre or style of music. I mean there are some genres I’m not the biggest fan of, such as heavy metal and punk, but I did grow up with my brother blasting out Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and the Sex Pistols so I can’t help tapping my foot or nodding my head to some ‘heavier’ tracks!

Finally, I’m just going to leave you with a list of some of my all-time favourite songs. Some I love because of a particular memory and others just because…..

Red Light Spells Danger – Billy Ocean

Politik – Coldplay

Zombie – The Cranberries

Dream a little Dream – The Mamas & the Papas

Disco 2000 – Pulp

What’s up? – 4 Non Blondes

Endlessly – Muse

Autumnsong – Manic Street Preachers

Starry Eyed Surprise – Paul Oakenfold

Absolute Beginners – David Bowie

Love Generation – Bob Sinclair

Sunshine on Leith – The Proclaimers

Waiting on the World to Change – John Mayer

Border Song – Tom McRae

Luv – Travis

The Promise – Tracy Chapman

Slight Return – The Bluetones

Torn – Natalie Imbruglia

Holes – Mercury Rev

I’ll Find My Way Home – Jon and Vangelis

Extreme Ways – Moby

Forever – Turin Brakes

Hallelujah – Jeff Buckley

Together in Electric Dreams – Giorgio Moroder

Moment of Surrender – U2

Abraham, Martin & John – Marvin Gay

Return to Innocence – Enigma

Glory Box – Portishead

Creep – Radiohead

Sound of Silence – Simon & Garfunkel

Run – Snow Patrol

Dakota – Stereophonics

Rule the World – Take That

Drive – The Cars

Somewhere Over the Rainbow – Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

This Pretty Face – Amy Macdonald

Altogether Now – The Farm

Better – Tom Baxter

Big Sur – The Thrills

Fisherman’s Blues – The Waterboys

Each memory has a soundtrack of its own