Joy and comfort to be found in trip down memory lane

With apologies to Mr Carrack of Crookes, this week has been mostly about nostalgia, listening to old music, reading old stories, and watching television programmes that talk about old music and old television programmes, I’ve done a show full of TV themes, and for a few hours, I’ve been 20 years old again, remembering the places and faces of the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Browsing records at shops such as the Record Collector. Picture: Scott Merrylees

Don Henley once sang “don’t look back, you can never look back”. It’s a good song (the Boys of Summer) but I disagree with him. Especially recently when the present is a mess, and the future is certain (Talking Heads – Road To Nowhere) , there’s a fair amount of joy and comfort to be found in memories.For example, I’ve been thinking back to school holidays, when we would literally get up with the sunrise, do paper rounds, and then be out straight after breakfast, and wouldn’t be home until teatime. I know for certain that it rained, and yet I can’t recall a rainy day from any summer, all my memories are of sunshine, hanging round with pals, playing football, cricket, watching the trains go by.

I remember Live Aid in 1985, another baking hot day, and there we were for 14 hours, we watched every act, cried at every clip of the devastation in Africa, and all held our breath when Bob Geldof said “flip* the address, give us the money, people are dying, NOW”

I remember Swap Shop, Tiswas, Andy Crane with Edd the duck, Philip Schofield and Gordon the Gopher. Blue Peter, The Young Ones, Saturday Live, Friday Night Live, and of course, Top of the Pops and The Tube.

I remember Saturdays, getting the bus to town, spending hours in every record shop, flicking through the racks until finding the coolest album, gatefold sleeve and a lyric sheet, the thrill of sitting on the bus home, reading the sleeve notes and the lyrics, and then running straight upstairs to put the record on and turn the volume up.

I remember first kisses, first crushes, and first shared drinks, illicitly purchased from the off licence with pooled together change, and drunk while sitting on the steps of the cricket pavilion, talking about things we would do when we were grown up, girls we would kiss, football games we would win, and hit records we would make. All under a blue sky.