As I sit typing this in London’s brightest and busiest language school I look at the date on my calendar and wonder where all the time went! 2010? Already? You see, I remember the 80s as a time when I was already at least a little aware of how the world works. It was a dreary, recession-blighted era and I spent most of the decade worried about exams that I’d have to pass or ill because of worrying about those exams.

One bright light was Top of the Pops every Thursday evening, when the latest London had to offer the world in terms of big hair, guitars, synthesisers and make up would be offered up for my delectation or, in some cases, horror!
However, the point is that the world of pop music provided a chance to escape the humdrum, so the affection I hold these artists in now far outweighs any musical merit they may have had.
This has been brought home to me very strongly in the last four weeks and is about to do so even more in the next four…
Let me explain.
My brother in law is a helluva nice fella called Derrick and on one of the few days over Christmas when I wasn’t snowed in I called to him and my sister and, ahem, ‘have a look at his iTunes library’.

Derrick is the same age as me and couldn’t give a cuss about musical snobbery, so there was as much Thompson Twins and Chris de Burgh as other, so-called ‘cooler,’ artists.

I must admit that I’ve really been enjoying all the cheesy 80s stuff! I suppose it brings me back to a more innocent time…
I also treated myself to as little machine which you can transfer cassettes to mp3 files. (I never bought records: always cassettes and I have a whole suitcase full of compilation tapes.) I can’t wait to get them transferred to my iPod..
So that’s it. I’m officially old. Music is not the kaleidoscope through which I view the future, but the old comforting pillow on which I remember the past. And believe me, that’s a GOOD thing!
Mike

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 11:51 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.