The Soundtrack To My Life

I was tagged in a meme last week by the lovely Lauren at The Real Housewife Of Suffolk County to share the music that I feel is the soundtrack to my life.  See Lauren, I promised I'd do it :-)

The meme originated at Him, Me & Three and it's a great one for sparking some memories and since my 80's post last week which seemed to reignite a lot of people's memories I couldn't resist!  Also, I hope it will give my daughter something to laugh about when she's older!

Right, here goes with a really mixed bag*

Matchbox - When You Ask About Love
AND 
KC and the Sunshine Band - Give It Up
I had to choose both these songs for my childhood (although I could have chosen anything by Danny Kaye from Hans Christian Andersen).  These are the songs that instantly transport me back to caravan holidays with my parents and my sister when I was little in the 80's.  They conjure up so many happy memories of going to the holiday park discos and spending all night shaking my little booty on the dance floor, occasionally running back over to the table my parents had collared by the dance floor by arriving 'early doors'.  They remind me of dancing with Richard - a boy a year older than me whose parents were friends with my parents when we used to go away together (most years).  Richard was probably my first 'love'....I say love as we haven't actually seen each other since we were 12 but we did exchange love letters for a good few years after they moved away.  I still have them!




Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus
Anyone who's stopped by my blog before will know from past posts I adore Depeche Mode  so it would be crazy not to include them in my life.  I could have picked any song as I played my vinyl albums to the death but this for me, brings back memories of the first time I ever saw them live when I was 16 - I remember this song with the lights reaching out across the audience on the chorus and everyones hands in the air was...it was mind-blowing.  The Violator album is definitely 'my album', the one that means so much to me.  This song also brings back memories of those awkward teenage years...enough said.


D:Ream - Things Can Only Get Better
This song immediately transports me to a time in my life when I was upset but I also felt set free (something that was going to come back again in later in my life).  It was the song that was a number one hit at the time I broke up with my first proper long term boyfriend.  We'd been together for 2 years and, although I was the one who ended it, it was awkward and I didn't shake him off for a while.  Ok, to put it bluntly, he made my life hell and stalked me for a long while - he was a dick (actually his name was Richard too).


Robbie Williams - Eternity
I used to be a HUGE Robbie fan - huge.  Even went to Paris to see him live when he was just starting out solo, I was there at the front when he performed Knebworth and there VIP stylee at Roundhay Park a few years ago.  Since then he's turned into a bit of an alien loving freak and don't even get me started on his return to Take That - it makes me cringe.  Anyway, sorry ranting a bit there.  Despite all this, I still have a bit of a soft spot for The Robster in his glory days and this is one of my favourite songs of his which takes me back to the time my first marriage was well and truly at a point well past saving.  This song was the song that made me realise I had to walk out.  It took a huge amount of courage to do what I did but Robbie helped me through.  Also, it helps that I bloody love the bit when he bends her over the pool table and kisses her back! Yes, my names Heather and I'm dirty-minded.


Razorlight - Golden Touch
AND 
Pete Doherty - For Lovers
Yes, Pete Doherty is a first class idiot but these two songs are the songs I think of when I think of my husband, Matt (not that Matt is an idiot obviously).  Razorlight because I remember him leaving part of the recording and a little love message on my home answerphone one night when we lived 100 miles apart.  I didn't delete it for ages!  Pete Doherty because this song was just so lovely and it was always on when we together.  Matt and I met on-line and so I'm a huge advocate of Internet dating!  After 6 months of trying a long-distance relationship we couldn't hack it.  I remember him ringing me and him sounding so down saying "This isn't working"...I honestly thought he was going to end it and my heart sank. He told me he couldn't be apart from me and he ended up relocating up north to be with me.  Yay!

If you press play on the video below just shut your eyes so you don't have to look at Pete!


Coldplay - Viva la Vida
This song....oh this song....I love it!  I first heard it before it's release when Matt and I were travelling America and Canada for 3 weeks.  We knew when we got home we were going to start trying for a baby.  We returned from our holiday at the beginning of June and I tested positive on that little pee stick on Saturday 12th July 2008!  We couldn't believe we were so lucky.  This song was constantly on the radio every day and I know many people ended up hating it but I still love it as it reminds me of my pregnancy journey.


Ten Sharp - You
Yes, it's strange to choose an early 90's song to finish up with but it's the song that was playing on the radio when my beautiful daughter was born.  It's her song and it's beautiful, just like her.


Now, I've said before I don't really like tagging people in these things so please feel free to do your own post and link back if you wish.  However, I did promise Alyson at Alysons Blog & Vickie at Never Found The Plot a tag next time so - you're it!

*These aren't necessarily favourite songs of mine, nor are they songs that tell a tale of my life...they are simply the songs that trigger the memories (good and bad) of my life.

Flashback Friday - School's Out

This photo was taken on my last day of high school some 20 years ago.  My best friend is on the left and I'm the extremely pale looking one between her legs (WTF?) on the right with the seriously bad perm.

I honestly don't know what we were thinking when we posed for this photo but then, I guess the prospect of leaving high school behind was obviously making us a bit giddy.

We've been best friends for 30 years this year and talking about her in my 80's post the other day made me dig out this photo.

Why not air your photo memories and link up with Karin?

E is for...Eighties

Click play to reminisce (may take a short while to load) 

I'm well and truly an 80's girl at heart.  I love the 80's as I spent most of my childhood in them - from the ages 6 to 16 in fact.  I know some people hate the 80's so much that they shudder at the thought of mullets, curly perms and banana clips.  But for me, the 80's was the best decade, the decade of fun, the decade of high fashion and neon clothing, the decade of new romantic music and the decade when my Dad made a go-kart for me that was the fastest thing on earth!

I've already talked about my love of 80's films on my blog and my obsession with the mighty Depeche Mode which started in the 80's but there is so much more that defines the 80's for me.  So much more that even after I've posted this blog, I know I'll think of something else.

80's music played a big part in my life and even now, throw on a bit of 80's 'cheese' and you can never fail to get me up on the dance floor.  In fact, I used to frequent my local nightclub during the nineties and noughties most weekends...would I be on the ground floor listening to the indie tunes?  No.  Would I be found on the first floor raving it up to some club classics?  No way!  No, I'd usually be found in some drunken state getting my groove on to Tiffany or some other cheese-fest musical memory on the 80's floor. Usually after a few too many TVR's!

Tiffany and cheese aside, the thing I love the 80's for most is the new romantic music it brought with it.  Bands like Depeche Mode, The Smiths, New Order, The Cure, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran and The Human League were everywhere and I couldn't get enough of them.

The 80's saw the birth of MTV to our screens, I remember a friend of mine who's parents always got the very latest technology.  I'd spend so much time at her house for sleep-overs where we'd watch MTV all night and dance around the living room in our pyjamas.   To sit and watch music videos in your living room was just amazing.  MTV also brought with it a change in fashion.  Most of us wore ski-pants with over-sized shirts or bat-wing jumpers and big thick belts.  Our clothes were bright and in your face.  We didn't just accessorize we excessorized!  We went over-board on big and bright plastic earrings, necklaces and bracelets.  The American influence saw us going big (quite literally) on huge shoulder pads so we looked just like Crystal Carrington.  I think the 80's is such a mix of fashion from one extreme to another...and although I look back at pictures of myself and shudder, I can't help but smile and love the 80's for all it's nuttiness!

I have such fond memories of racing to the local news agents on a Thursday to pick up my weekly copy of Smash Hits Magazine.  I would study the magazine for hours, pouring over the latest bands and heart throbs.  Then, when I was done, I'd rip out the lyrics pages so I could get ready to sing my heart out (badly) whilst listening to the Radio 1 chart countdown every Sunday.  On that Sunday I would get my trusty tape cassette deck out, insert my memorex tape and have my fingers poised over the record and play buttons ready to record the songs I loved.  I remember just how pissed off I'd feel if I mis-timed it and ended up with Bruno Brookes talking on my tape!  I'd be frantically rewinding and re-editing, trying to cut all the talking out and then writing the songs on the label insert.

I'd spend lots of time with my best friend (and she's still my best friend now), looking through Smash Hits and singing along to our newly compiled tapes of chart hits.  We'd sing into hairbrushes.  We'd even knock on her brothers bedroom door and sing to him or plead with him to do his impression of Vivian from The Young Ones.

That's another love of mine from the 80's - The Young Ones.  Maybe it's where my love of toilet humour stems from?  Maybe it's the fact that my Mum didn't really like my older Sister and I watching it but we used to twist her arm - the great thing about your Dad working nights!

To this day, my favourite episode of The Young Ones has to be 'Bambi', the one where they go on University Challenge.  Music also played a huge part in The Young Ones...where else could you get to rock out to tunes whilst chuckling away over jokes about bogies, trumps and crap. Even now I can't listen to Ace Of Spades by Motörhead without giggling like a silly schoolgirl.

The other night my husband was flicking through the TV channels on Sky (typical man) and I suddenly stopped him.  "Quick, quick, go back a couple of channels, I used to watch that programme in the 80's" I cried.  What was it?  Some cool kid or teen programme?  No. I was referring to 'Thirtysomething'.  I used to watch and love this programme in the late 80's.  When I look back, I wonder if the 80's made us all old before our time or is this something that all kids do?  Watch a programme about people so much older than them and so different.  Why would someone in their early teens love a programme about baby booming yuppies in their 30's?  But it made me stop and think about all the programmes I genuinely loved in these years - Moonlighting, The Love Boat, Dynasty, The A-Team, CHiPs, Beauty and the Beast, The Cosby Show, Diff'rent Strokes and The Fall Guy to name but a few.  Perhaps I was old before my time?  Perhaps we all were in the 80's or perhaps it happens within every generation? Perhaps children born in the late 80's used to sit glued to 'Cold Feet'?  Who knows?

This blog post could quite easily go on and on, talking about the kids programmes I loved of the 80's like Metal Mickey, The Adventure Game (remember 'Grandad' the talking plant?), Fraggle Rock and The Moomins.  I could talk about the toys I loved (and loathed) like Cabbage Patch Dolls, Pound Puppies, Glo Worms, Lolo Balls, My Little Pony, Popples and Cindy Dolls.  But I won't...I just wanted to spark some memories.

For me, the 80's have to be the most influential decade of my life and I'll never stop loving them.  Do you love or hate the 80's and what are your memories?

Part of my A to Z posts

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