Music...The Sound of my Soul

Ok so yeah it's been a long time since I posted and yes I stole the whole Sound of my Soul from Spandau Ballet but that's ok 'cos this bloggy is about music!

I think I started getting into music in a serious way in high school, at 14. Now I always liked music, I always had a radio that I carried around (waayyy before iPods were even a thought, we're talking transistor radio here), digging some of what I heard but not a lot. No I was waiting for a new sound, new bands with new ideas. Led Zepplin is cool as are The Doors and The Beatles Ect...and nobody would ever be near as cool as Bowie, but I was looking for something new, something that could be mine. I didn't have too long to wait, as this search started at the end of the 70's and the 1980's would herald a new music revolution and that revolution would change my life forever. It would save my life!

When I was sort of 14 and 15 I was bored. I was getting to that age when the things that had made me happy since I was a kid was suddenly just not fun anymore and I wanted new. New everything but mostly new music. I wanted to know who the hell was singing this song I kept hearing on my little transistor radio, this new sound, this new beat that conjured images of far away places as I lay on my bed daydreaming. I needed to know who the band was. Desperately. I was one of the few unfortunate souls who did not have cable tv yet so, whilst I was aware of MTV, I did not have access to it at home. If I had I probably would have figured out the name of this song was RIO and the band was DURAN DURAN a lot faster. As it was it was just a freakish flukey thing that I figured it out, especially as the radio stations here in Chicago were NOT in the habit of giving the band names before or after the songs at that time, actually that's not really changed much. So I saw this album (yes, vinyl, I'm old, deal with it) that had this RIO for the title and upon further research (flipping said album over to read the back), there was a song called RIO also. I mean it had to be the song, how many other songs had a line in it "Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand" in them? I figured at the very least the song was called "Her Name is Rio"...but yeah, RIO is simple enough I suppose. Anywhoo I at least convinced my mum that if I did not have this album by this band I would absolutely die on the spot and thankfully for me she bought it, with rolling eyes and all. I loved the entire album and didn't turn it off even when my mum tried to buy me off with my favourite dinner, a new bike (hey I was 14 going on 15, far from old enough to have a car so a bike was IMPORTANT), cash and a night out for a film and dinner without my brother tagging along...all to no avail 'cos that album was NOT coming off my turntable thankyouverymuch! Then to add fuel to my ever growing fire? Hungry Like The Wolf came out. At this time I wasn't listening to my radio as much 'cos I had RIO on 24/7 so I had no real idea that HLTW was out until I saw the video on Friday Night Videos on regular tv...I had never seen any Duran video up to this point and let me say, the first sight of Simon Lebon? I was done for. Honestly. From what I've been told my mother had an entire conversation with me whilst that video was on and I heard none of it. lol I said then and I say now, it's not my fault, I never told Simon Lebon to be that damned sexy! I still think he's ridiculously sexy. I always will. My god this was all what, nearly 30 years ago now...how can that be?

So from Duran Duran I got into other bands. I bought other albums. I listen to other music. Well mostly I listened to Duran Duran's first 3 albums 'cos now it's 1984 and I've discovered Spandau Ballet the year prior when they released TRUE. I mean my god you had to be dead if you didn't know the song TRUE that year! It was EVERYWHERE! Shit it's STILL everywhere come to think of it, in so many films it's not even funny and still being played everywhere I go. In 1984 I discovered Depeche Mode and have been manic over them every since and then came Band Aid and Do They Know It's Christmas and my first real sighting of Gary Kemp. I mean sure I'd seen him plenty of times on the vid for TRUE and always thought he was definately the hotty of that band, but when I saw him goofing with John Taylor (it always comes back to Duran Duran)? I was really just SHAZAM'd between the eyeballs. The hottness of Gary, the clothes he was wearing and THAT SMILE just scrambled what brains I had then and really? Upon FINALLY meeting him in 2009? NOTHING has changed. But on a serious note, the music of Spandau Ballet soothed a part of my soul that was desperate for just the type of music they created. It was sort of like Duran yet completly different. It was poppy yet soulful and there wasn't another band in the entire world that sounded like them. I got very caught up in their sound and in them but it was very hard to follow them here in the States. I mean there was MTV and they did really a bang up job back then keeping us informed about bands and music (honest, they DID used to play music videos!) but the one time they were going to do a serious tour of the States one of the members hurt himself and they had to cancel. I've since forgiven him... :o) So it's no wonder, really, that it wasn't until 2009, a reunion tour and in the UK (Birmingham to be exact) that I finally got to see my Spandau Ballet live. In the flesh. In front of my face as I was lucky enough to have a very special person get me front row seats. I have to say the show was so phenominal that I'd wait that quarter of a century again. They were well worth waiting for. Meeting the band back stage was magical as well and I will forever remember that entire day.

Three bands shaped my world in the '80z. Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Depeche Mode. Depeche Mode was a very important influence on me in the last 80's, from '87 through '91. They influenced how I looked, how I dressed, the people I hung with and they provided the back-drop for the summer of '88 and the most explosive, amazing, frustrating, scary, fun, intense time of my entire life. At first I'd say I wish some of what I went through I wish I didn't but then I realise that's not true, I'd go through it all, all of it, all over again if I could because those experiences that summer shaped me in a serious way. Through the music of this band I met people I never would have met, I went places I never would have gone, I did things I never would have done (or will ever tell my son about), and I do treasure all those things. Pleasure, Little Treasure. This band's music is so strongly in my soul that when I was pregnant with my son? Well lets just say some 13 years later he's the biggest Depeche Mode fan in the entire world. lol Seriously. I listened to them when pregnant, I put headphones on my belly and let my growing child enjoy their instrumentals and when he was a newborn I rocked him to sleep to their new album ULTRA...which is his favourite to this day. He also digs in a major way Duran Duran. Duran were my first live gig and his, just over 20 years to the day later.

I often wonder if people realise how much music can and does shape our every day lives. I know there are people out there, my mother for one, who are not moved by music of any kind and I feel sorry for her and people like her because there is nothing like hearing a song and being transported some 20+ years in the past. I mean I can be out somewhere today in 2011 and if I hear RIO in a store or something? I'm 14 years old again, sitting on the floor in my bedroom, walls covered in Duran Duran posters and pictures, writing in my latest story. I can literally smell what mom made for dinner that day. Music is magical and it is neccessary in my life.

These days I can be caught listening to Duran Duran's newest album ALL YOU NEED IS NOW (waiting for 21st October gig here in Chicago!), Spandau's latest which was 2 new songs and the rest old songs redone and redone with panache only Spandau Ballet can bring, I listen to Depeche Mode's everything, Dave Gahan's solo work, Martin Gore's solo work, Gary Kemp's solo work, Tony Hadley's solo work, and new bands like EDITORS who are, in my book, right up there with my top three favourite bands of all time. They are a force to be reckoned with and they should be taking over the world with their music and would be if the world of music wasn't being ruined by teeny's who become famous 'cos they're "cute". I'm hopeful they will break through, they've got the talent. I also listen to a band called PALACE FIRES who are on iTunes so go check 'em out as well as EDITORS. Fantastic bands, bands I'm proud to see take up the mantle of English Rock and Roll. Alas there are 2 bands that contain young men who are the son's of the Kemp brothers from Spandau Ballet. Martin Kemp's son Roman is in a band called Paradise Point and they are SERIOUSLY fantastic and Gary's son Finlay is in a band called LUX, who are just as fab. Again 2 other bands a serious music fan can be proud to have on their iPod! Those 4 bands give me hope for the future of music 'cos for a while there? Seriously? Not good. There is always a place for the Justin Bieber's of the world and the Brittany Spears of the world and all that teeny poppy music, but to have it take over as it has? Just not. Anyhoo....that's my take on music. On what's important to me. I'm sure there is a lot I wanted to say that I've forgotten, so I'm sure I'll babble on about this subject many more times!

Favourite music today only:

Duran Duran: Out of my Mind

Spandau Ballet: Chant No 1

Depeche Mode: Stripped

Editors: Well Worn Hand

Gary Kemp: Little Bruises

David Garrett: Smooth Criminal

These are some of the songs I listened to whilst writing this. Tomorrow...or really half an hour from now...the choices will be different.