30 Day Music Challenge: Day Six

Day Six: A Song That Reminds You of Somewhere

I'm cheating slightly because this song reminds me of a school trip *to* somewhere rather than the actual place itself. However this is my music challenge and I can cheat if I want to so there!

When I was in Year 10 - so approximately 14 - I, along with a bus load of my classmates, went on a GCSE History trip to Belgium. This was a memorable trip for many reasons: it was my first trip overseas without my parents and one of the most effective ways of demonstrating the futility of war to a bunch of adolescents that I can think of. The First World War cemeteries of Belgium and Northern France are one of the saddest sights I have ever seen and even the coolest kids on the trip cried at headstones dedicated to boys barely older than us who had lied about their ages just to go to war. I've never forgotten the sight of those graveyards and as an outstandingly privileged generation we should never forget the sacrifices that our grandparents and great-grandparents generation made so that we could be free.

However, despite the fact that it was a very emotional trip, we were all still a bunch of silly teenagers who spent their evenings sneaking into one another's rooms and trying to work out how to sneak out of the hotel. We also listened to Belgian MTV a lot which was a mixed blessing because it only played about four songs including Oops I Did It Again by Britney and Freestyler by Bomfunk MCs amongst other hideousness - but luckily it also played All the Small Things by Blink-182. I'm a huge fan of pop-punk, I might even go so far as to say it's my favourite genre of music but when I was 14 I neither knew nor cared - I just loved this song and it still reminds me of that trip to Belgium every time I hear it!

"Late night, come home
Work sucks, I know
She left me roses by the stairs
Surprises let me know she cares

Say it ain't so, I will not go

Turn the lights off, carry me home 

Na na na na na na..."

30 Day Music Challenge: Day Five

I was doing so well and then a weekend got in the way, a fantastic weekend but not one involving much writing... I'm suspecting that this whole thing will probably take me a bit longer than 30 days but I doubt it matters that much.


Day Five: A Song That Reminds You of Someone

Thankfully today's song was much easier to choose than last Friday's... We all associate songs with people don't we - my friend Louise used to get people calling her from clubs at 3am because they were playing "her" song (9 to 5 by Dolly Parton) but over the past couple of months there has been one person on my mind more than most.

Sadly, on Valentine's Day this year my wonderful Nana passed away at the age of 92. Despite the fact that I have spoken or written those words at least a hundred times in the past two weeks it still doesn't seem real - she was the absolute heart of our family and I don't think I can express in words just how much we will all miss her. My childhood was defined by the time I spent with her - Holt, the village in which she lived, is as much home to me as where my parents live. My love for history certainly can be traced to Nana talking to me about the Romans, the Civil War and all the other facets of the history of a tiny village right on the English-Welsh border. When I went to university she wrote to me all the way through my first term, enclosing essentials like stamps and money for chocolate along with fervent wishes that I both keep warm and have fun.

Her legacy is far more however than my childhood memories - she bequeathed to all of us the knowledge of what it means to live life to the full. She went to university and had a long career as a teacher as well as looking after a husband and three children long before modern dilemmas about women "having it all". Family, however, was a vitally important part of her life as were her many friends, some of them acquaintances of over 80 years standing. On the day of her funeral the sun shone and the church was packed with people which was a more than fitting tribute to how wonderful a person she was. She was an intelligent, warm and inspirational woman with a wickedly dry sense of humour and a deep interest in everything happening in the world right until the very end of her life. I can't tell you how proud I am to be Dorothy Leyland's granddaughter, I only know that if I'm half the woman she was I'll count myself lucky.

One of my abiding childhood memories is going to church with Nana and listening to her singing in the choir - and my mum tells me that their house was always full of music when she was growing up. The song that always makes me think of Nana however is Dance the Night Away by the Mavericks. You see, when she was in her 80s she took up line dancing - along with lace-making, German and a hundred other pastimes - we used to joke that her social life was more active than any of ours! When my brother got married in 1998 Nana refused to go to bed until she'd danced to The Mavericks and ever since I've always smiled and thought of her whenever I heard Dance the Night Away.

"Here comes my happiness again
Right back to where it should have been
'Cause now she's gone and I am free
And she can't do a thing to me

I just wanna dance the night away
With senoritas who can sway
Right now tomorrow's lookin' bright
Just like the sunny mornin' light"

30 Day Music Challenge: Day Four

Day Four: A Song That Makes You Sad
Today's question is difficult. I listen to a lot of music when I'm sad, arguably more than I do when I'm happy. There are lots of songs that remind me of times in my life when I've been particularly unhappy. But a song that I can put on knowing it'll make me sad? That's a bit more complicated.

At this point I stopped writing and listened to a few of the songs which I could've potentially chosen with fairly mixed results. For example, Dying by Stone Sour - the opening bars and the lyrics are melancholy but then some quite upbeat guitars kick in which lend themselves more to angsty shouting rather than sadness. The Blower's Daughter by Damien Rice is much more of a sad song but it also reminds me of the film Closer which, apart from the opening scene where Natalie Portman and Jude Law are walking towards one another in slow motion, was a huge disappointment to me. I'm tempted by The Cure, The Smiths or Bon Iver as well but, quite apart from the fact I've already chosen one Cure track for this list, I feel like this should be a song that makes me feel sad for a reason not something that's just generally wistful.

With that in mind and on the basis that I can't ramble on about songs that make me feel a bit weepy forever I've gone for Suzanne Vega - Marlene on the Wall. It's probably more of an angsty song than a sad song but every single time I hear the lyrics I remember sitting in my bedroom at midnight wondering how the hell I was ever going to fix the mess I'd managed to land myself in. I was fairly immature and thoughtless, even at the age of 20, and it took a lot to make me grow the hell up. Regardless of my idiocy this is still a beautiful song with wonderfully evocative lyrics but it will always carry a lot of emotional baggage.

"Even if I am in love with you
All this to say, what's it to you?
Observe the blood, the rose tattoo
Of the fingerprints on me from you

Other evidence has shown
That you and I are still alone
We skirt around the danger zone
And don't talk about it later"

30 Day Music Challenge: Day Three

Well I'm racing through these aren't I?! Day three already... Today's question is particularly appropriate at the moment because despite grief, illness and the fact that it still isn't spring I am actually very happy at the moment.

Day Three: A Song That Makes You Happy
In light of my simmering euphoria it's difficult to find a song that doesn't make me happy. However there are a few things which are guaranteed to put a smile on my face and the song I've chosen manages to combine both of them! Firstly, as anyone who has ever had the misfortune to be dragged to Reflex by me will know, I have a very soft spot for cheesy 80's music. Spandau Ballet, Wham!, Europe, Journey - just name the song and I can guarantee I'll have screamed and dragged an innocent victim onto the dancefloor as soon as it came on. In fact one of the reasons I love Glee so much is that cover of Don't Stop Believing...

The other genre of music that makes me bounce up and down with joy however is Ska. I knew next to nothing about ska until I went to uni, I think the only ska band I'd ever heard of was Madness and I didn't even know they were a ska band. However, Durham SU used to put on an alternative club night every term which was pretty much the only time you were likely to hear any kind of rock music in a club in Durham. The first time I went I was desperately trying to look cool and was sort of shuffling away to the music trying to work out if I'd put enough eyeliner on when my friend Katie started bouncing up and down to a song I'd never heard before. I think it was Kicking Pigeons by [spunge] but I couldn't swear to that. Anyway that was when I discovered ska and also when I realised that having fun was far more important than looking cool.

Fast-forward seven years (really??) and, whilst I have learnt that not all ska is happy smily music - I live in Coventry these days and so appreciate the grim industrial wasteland invoked by Ghost Town - I still adore a bit of ska-based silliness. I saw Reel Big Fish last Sunday and it was such a fantastic gig - Kerry and I danced like mad things all night! On the basis of that alone I could probably pick any RBF song and go to my happy place but this was their last encore, it was brilliant and, as I said, I'm a true child of the 80's. So here you go - Take on Me by Reel Big Fish! Happy, happy, happy!

"We're talking away
I don't know what
I'm to say I'll say it anyway
Today's another day to find you
Shying away
I'll be coming for your love, OK?

Take on me, take me on"

30 Day Music Challenge: Day Two

Goodness, two posts in two days - let's see how long I can keep this up! I am quite enjoying this music challenge idea although if you're expecting superior critical analysis and musical taste this list probably isn't the one for you... Anyway, here goes:

Day Two: A Song You Hate
This was much easier to choose a song for than yesterday's challenge - although hate is a word I tend not to use that much when I'm talking about music. I'm not particularly a musical snob - I like a bit of Lady GaGa as much as the next person - and generally will listen to anything once. There are genres of music I'm not that fond of - I've never been a dance music girl and I'm not really clever enough to understand classical music - but it's pretty rare that even the autotuned rubbish that Radio 1 seems to play these days actually stirs me to seething hatred. Having said all that I knew which song I would choose for this question almost as soon as I saw the list - Everyday I Love You Less and Less by The Kaiser Chiefs.

It's odd because generally I quite like the Kaiser Chiefs - they write relatively bouncy northern songs and whilst I was at university they were probably one of my favourite bands. I also used to have a small soft spot for Ricky Wilson after seeing him on Shooting Stars. I haven't listened to much of their stuff in years however I do still have Employment on my ipod so occasionally this song will turn up on shuffle at which juncture I'll press skip as fast as I can... On the surface it's not that offensive, just chirpy lyrics about some bird he doesn't fancy anymore, but every time I listen to the words I want to punch the bastard in the face. I'm not sure whether I'm projecting - I was once in a relationship where the guy I was with found it very difficult to hide his contempt for me which automatically puts me on the side of the girl who is being sung about! However I'm sure I disliked the song before that - I simply don't understand why people continue relationships when they're making one another miserable, let alone why you'd write a pop song about it...

"Everyday I love you less and less
I can't believe once you and me did sex
It makes me sick to think of you undressed
Since everyday I love you less and less
And everyday I love you less and less
You're turning into something I detest
And everybody says that your a mess
Since everyday I love you less and less"

30 Day Music Challenge - Day One!

One of my New Years' resolutions was to blog more frequently which, given that it's now March, is somewhat laughable. The last two months have, however, been high on life-related trauma and low on time to do things like blog, exercise or sit down. I'm going shamelessly plagarise the 30 Day Music Challenge idea from Andy, Nuala and Ness as it seems like a good way of getting into the habit...


Day One: Your Favourite Song
I avoid answering this question all the time. In fact I have spent DAYS thinking about this question and I'm still not convinced I know the answer. I'm quite faddy so the song I'm listening to at the moment tends to be my favourite. However there are some songs which stand out, the ones that get me through the happiest and saddest times in my life as well as the ones that get me out of bed and into work every morning. The song I've chosen - because I have for once managed to make a decision - could actually fit into a lot of the categories on this list. It makes me happy but it's also made me cry. I know all the words, I've danced to it a million times and  it reminds me both of people and places I've loved. It's also a song I've loved since I was little and had no idea who The Cure were or what the song was about, I just liked the chorus! Over the past couple of weeks I've thought about and listened to this song more than I have in years so choosing it seems particularly appropriate.

My favourite song is of course Friday I'm in Love. It's a song which seems to run through the fabric of my life and even at the times in my life when hearing it made me sad it's always been a song I loved. At the moment just hearing the opening bars makes me want to dance like a crazy person so, of all the songs that I love, this is officially the one I love the most.

"I don't care if Monday's blue
Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too
Thursday I don't care about you
It's Friday I'm in love"

Things I wish I'd known when I was 16...

This is a bit different - my week has involved quite a bit of shouting about various things in my life so I'm not really in the mood for political ranting... However there's a topic that's currently trending on twitter - #tweetyour16yearoldself - and reading other people's thoughts all day has made me think a lot about what exactly I would say if I had just a few minutes with myself at 16.  I remember that, at 16, I really felt like I'd lived a lot of my life already and that my path was already fixed,  I couldn't have been more wrong if I'd tried - in reality it was the point at which I started becoming the person I am today. 

So please step into my DeLorean - we're off back to 2001...

Dear Claire-at-sixteen,

1. It doesn't matter what all those people thought of you in school, in less than ten years time half of them will still be stuck in Wrexham doing exactly the same things with their lives. You, on the other hand, will have escaped - just as you always planned.

2. Stop wasting your time being insecure about your looks - you're not Kate Moss but that's ok because she's a drug taking model! And for god's sake stop worrying about being fat - you never have been and, if you're sensible, you probably never will be. So relax and enjoy that sausage and egg bap - Shelly's will close next year and you might as well enjoy them whilst you can.

3. You like rock music right? Listen to more of it! Buy more CDs and listen to John Peel on Radio 1 whilst you still can.

4. Stop being cynical about relationships - one day you'll work out why they're worth all the hassle. Also, when you get your heart broken just remember it's not the end of the world, it's just another bump in the road.

5. Don't cry when you don't get into Oxford - you'll get into a university which is just as good and you'll have the time of your life when you get there.


6. Driving is much harder than you imagined and it'll take you ages to learn but don't let that get you down - when you do pass your test (and you will!) it'll be terrifying at first but absolutely worth the wait.

7. All the quirks in your personality and all the geeky things you're interested in are the things that make you unique. Don't pretend to be someone else just to fit in - the people who are worth knowing will love you for who you are.

8. Your sister may be annoying now but she'll grow up to be an awesome person and one of your best friends. You both just need to grow up first...

9. Your friends and family are really important. Life is tough sometimes and you've got a lot of that still to come but you'll get through it because you've got fabulous people around you. Don't forget to be there for them when they need you.

10. And finally, smile and be happy. It will all work out for the best, just savour every moment.

Love from your twenty-five year old self  - trust me, it's really not that old once you're here!
xxx