This week's Soundtrack To My Life comes from John (or is it Peter? See his Twitter profile). We 'met' online one Friday night when I was under the guise of my alter ego, Friday Twiz. John (or Peter) has recently moved to the other side of the world and is enjoying a new life over in Australia. Here are his song choices...
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Kylie Minogue – Can't Get You Out Of My Head
Being eighteen years old, gay, and liable to spending a great deal of time in one nightclub or another leads to one hearing (and dancing to!) a great deal of Kylie Minogue, but this song attached itself to my life more than any other.
I first heard it while on holiday in Brugge, Netherlands, where I saw the video on the television in the hotel room. I was enthralled by the contrast of the floaty white fabric against the harsh red plastic of her back-up dancers' costumes, and was intrigued by the oddly melancholy feel of an obvious club hit. Later in the year the song was everywhere and I particularly remember it being blasted out of every ride and attraction at Hull Fair (Europe's largest travelling fun fair); it was truly inescapable.
Given a relift by being mashed-up with New Order's “Blue Monday”, it became a favourite at Poptastic Leeds, an old haunt of mine, where the DJ invariably performed the dance moves on stage.
Moloko – Forever More
Not only part of the soundtrack to my life, but the soundtrack to many hours spent on the M62. I lived in Leeds and worked in Hull and drove between the two cities a couple of times a week. My car didn't have a CD player; only a tape deck, and my only tape was Moloko's “Statues” album, whose runtime, start to finish, was the same as my journey time.
In either direction the track “Forever More” started as I hit the motorway. Its pumping, relentless beat pushed my foot down on the accelerator and always spurred me on, and in one direction told me I was definitely on the way home.
Cher – One by One
I'm not a particular fan of love songs. That is until I hear one with a line that expresses what love actually feels like; then I'm reduced to tears. 'I know that I could never love any other man' is that line in this song.
I had it on constant repeat in 1995 when I didn't really know what love was all about. Nearly twenty years later I finally know what that line means: it's joy, jubilation, desperation and despair wrapped up into ten words. Cher's effortless vocal glides over the lyric and its dreamlike quality reminds me as much of beautiful summers in love as it does of the heartbreak of being separated by circumstance.
Ace of Base – Don't Turn Around
One evening in the mid-nineties I was at home with my mum; we had the house to ourselves and we were playing with the brand new CD player. It was our first one and we had only three CDs: a Doris Day collection, REM's “Automatic for the People” and “Happy Nation” by Ace of Base. That night had its second track, a cover of Aswad's “Don't Turn Around” on continuous repeat as we sat in the kitchen and learnt the words. Without the help of Smash Hits magazine, or even a pen and paper, it took us all night, but the words and the memory of the evening have stayed with me since.
Whigfield – Saturday Night
July 1994 and I was sitting in the back seat of a taxi on the way to the hospital, where my cousin had just been born. My sister was in the middle, and to her left was Auntie Sue. Whigfield's “Saturday Night” came on the radio and the line that Auntie Sue picked up on was “ … pretty baby,” and she initiated a discussion about whether or not the newborn would indeed be a pretty baby.
Fast-forward eight years to my first week at university, and Whigfield was the headline act at the Freshers' Ball. After a night of beer in plastic cups and long queues for the toilet, Whigfield arrived on stage. Half an hour of 'new material' did nothing for the party atmosphere, but finally she played “Saturday Night”. At the back of the arena I started doing the dance – THE dance – and others around me followed suit and it spread forward. Weeks later I became friends with a wonderful guy who told me the same story of the evening, only he initiated the dance at the front! Some friendships start before you even meet.
Fast-forward eight years to my first week at university, and Whigfield was the headline act at the Freshers' Ball. After a night of beer in plastic cups and long queues for the toilet, Whigfield arrived on stage. Half an hour of 'new material' did nothing for the party atmosphere, but finally she played “Saturday Night”. At the back of the arena I started doing the dance – THE dance – and others around me followed suit and it spread forward. Weeks later I became friends with a wonderful guy who told me the same story of the evening, only he initiated the dance at the front! Some friendships start before you even meet.
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You can find John (or Peter) on Twitter as @supercroup and he also has a blog - An Aussie Feast (via England) - from which I'm going to steal some of his recipes.
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