Music and Memories

Leeds Festival, 2006

Driving back from a dance marketing event in Birmingham on Thursday, I had one of those smiley moments when you realise something; something you already knew, but it had never really popped into your brain before (I know there’s an oxymoron in there somewhere, but I’m sure you follow my drift!)

Being the passenger who had promised to provide sugar and entertainment, I had plugged my ipod into my colleague, Marianne’s, sound system and put it on shuffle, of course saving Marianne from the heavier stuff by skipping the track every time Marilyn Manson came on.

A rather eclectic mix awaited us. You see, I have every song I’ve ever purchased on that ipod. And soon we found ourselves listening to bands that no longer graced the airwaves of the radio or on MTV. I started to tell Marianne the stories that the songs reminded me of.

Of course there were the old mixes from University – dancing with the elite dance society EQHO usually meant a 10 minute long performance, riddled with starkly different tracks. We heard everything from B*Witched, my favourite childhood band (yes, I used to dress myself up entirely in denim!) to Evanescence, who’s “Bring me to life” was the very first rock song that I owned. There was no turning back once I had heard that one. We heard Pearl Jam and Placebo and I recalled one of my friends dragging me to their sets at Leeds Festival in 2006, promising me that I’d love them. I’d never heard of them before, and now I’m a huge fan of both bands, Placebo in particular. Even A1 were among the guitars and the drums; my teenage boyband obsession.

I realised that most, if not all of my memories are embedded with music and dance… or at least some kind of performance. But what about my memories of this past year? Fairy stories told us that we wouldn’t live to see 2013, that 2012 would be the end for all of us. But what did the last year do instead?

Here’s my 2012… where’s yours?

Join the tag video - Upload your 2012 video to YouTube with “2012 - What the fudge happened? – Video Response” in the title or post on Twitter with the hashtag #WhatTheFudgeHappened2012 and join the conversation.