March 2015

 

Music was my first love and it will be my last
Music of the future and music of the past
to live without my music would be impossible do
In this world of troubles my music pulls me through

 

John Miles penned these words in 1976 and it and I think they strike a chord with many people around the world.

I have a terrible memory I put that down to the old grey matter being abused too much by life and maybe the odd beer or two.

But for some reason I find that Music has the ability to transport me in an instant to a time and a place with vivid memories even in colour, even with sounds and smells.

Music has been a big part of my life since I was a kid. Yet I never learned to play an instrument.

 

Having breakfast in the morn before going to school, we had no TV on so it was the radio. Usually BBC radio 1. It played the chart music of the day. You might have heard of some of these groups.

Such as the Beatles, Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich, Argent and Procal Harum.

Maybe you haven’t heard of them

My school bag in High School was one of those bags used for the Gas masks from the war. It was covered in the groups of the day and we would almost hang out according to the music we liked. A bit like the mods and the rockers I guess.

Group names

I was a hippy of the day, you know into free love the odd joint or three and just generally having a good time.

I can tell you find that hard to believe because you need to have hair for that so that you could head bang to such wonderful groups as led Zeppelin and Deep Purlple and the one and only Black Sabbath.

I loved them all and still play their music today.And of course you have to play it loud. There is no way you can play this music in a mellow way

Alice Cooper was out there and he was great because he disgusted people by singing records titled Dead Babies and I love the Dead. And as long as your old dears didn’t like it it was OK. But my Mum got to like Alice Cooper because both my sister Catherine and I used to listen to him.

It might be a just a few notes of some disco dynamic but the next thing  I’m back in the Cochrane House hotel and it’s 1978

Charlie’s  the Dj and I’m up at the decks with a pint in hand and cigarette in the other. This is where you want to be if you want to pull somebody, get a lumber as we would say.

I’m chatting up Lynn, I’ve always fancied her. I get Charlie to play the next few tracks so that I can get to know Lynn a bit better.

Lynnard Skynnard’s Freebird is about to come on. A classic from 1973. I’m with Lynn can it get any better. She is the most stunning girl in the room and she is with me.

This was a very interesting time with music because it’s where heavy music began to mix with disco and then a few years later we got the Jazz Funk and then along came the New Romantics. There was a great mix of music around at this time.

One such song was the Birdie Song.

You’ve heard of the Birdie Song?

I hate that record with a passion, but it too has the effect of taking me to Majorca in a heartbeat. I feel the heat of the sun I can hear the Mediterranean lapping gently against the beach at Arenal.

I can remember how the 3 of us ken Bert and myself were out swimming when something touched our legs and we all panicked thinking it was a shark as we had recently seen Jaws.

We are sitting around the pool drinking cheap champagne which is less than a pound a bottle.

Ken got sun stroke from his plan to get a suntan on the first day and then concentrate on the woman for the rest of the holiday. It didn’t quite go to plan.

We seem to be drunk for the whole fortnight. But we had a great time, I think.

So many Scandinavians go on holiday here and they are stunning. We had never seen women like this in the flesh before.

We bumped into some Norwegian guys and we ended up hanging out with them, they were absolutely nuts and lobbed their TV out of their 4th storey window into the pool. So we thought that was pretty cool.

 

Dark side of the Moon Pink Floyd

Reminds me of the time I was stranded in Vancouver back in 1988 when I was on my way here to Australia. I spent an afternoon on a Blueberry farm having a few joints and listening to this album on some of the best equipment in the world at that time.

 

This guy had a Transcripter Deck

1991 Prince had an album called Diamonds and Pearls. The hit single Cream was being heard everywhere. I was working in a nightclub in Sydney called Reactor One. I worked alongside Rebecca behind the bar. What a team we were.

When they played this track we sing and dance behind the bar while we served the drinks. I’m sure the customers thought we were nuts.

 

Simple Minds Love song takes me to Paisley where we would drink in Toledo Junction where we would get extremely drunk just for a change and then stagger down to the Greasy Hamburger Van where you really should have caught some nasty disease from the food served there, but I guess it had to fight through the alcohol to do any damage.

Paisley Gilmour Street was where it all happened. You could get Greasy Food. You could get lucky and some people even got killed. This is where the Taxi rank was and most nights you were guaranteed a fight. Some nights we would just drive in the catch up with friends and watch the entertainment.

.

Spending a night up at the decks was a good way of meeting lovely young lassie’s. Play a record and you were in.

Raymond was a DJ also. He played in the Greenacres hotel which was up in the Braes overlooking our housing estate.  His music was at the time Jazz funk and the nightclub was more upmarket.

A better clientele indeed.

Had some great nights there.

His record mixing skills were legendary. He could mix a 7 inch to the 12 inch and back again and never miss a beat. He was a technician

It can change you mood, it can make you sad or happy. Music can make any job more enjoyable. I sit in rush hour traffic in the morn and I’ve found that if I listen to Classical FM I arrive at work more relaxed than I have done when I’m say listening to Rage against the machine or Ramstein, which if you don’t know who I’m talking about. Their music is like walking into a room and getting your brains smashed out……in a good way. This wall of sound just hits you and pushes the senses that make you want to bounce around and feel alive You need to hear and feel this music , no good playing it quiet.

 

These should be played before you come to forum to give your speech.

 

Music has been with us since time immemorial. Ever since man decided to celebrate something we have had music.

It can dictate the mood of an occasion and transform the moment.

Have you ever watched a movie with subtitles and then switched the sound off?

How much harder is it to follow that movie, how much do you enjoy it?

Mother Nature’s symphony has been with us forever and she too can make magic.

Sometime in her case it’s the lack of sound that accompanies a vista that makes it more impressive. One of the few times where the sound is better left on mute.

 

But in the morn  when you hear the Whip birds or Magpie’s embracing the new day it can only bring a smile to your face.