I can’t say that I was ever a great fan of Simon Bates but I thought that it might be interesting and fun to resurrect his famous ‘Our Tune’ radio feature. Most people will know the format: pick a tune that instantly transports you back to a particular event or time in your life. Sad or happy, fun or serious, fleeting or seminal, sexual or cerebral, it doesn’t matter what sort of event or time, just so long as you give a brief description as to why this tune means something to you.
I’m gonna start with a serious one for a change.
I heard this song performed live on a beautiful sunny day at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2005. It was already a well-known and popular song, so much so, that the audience of about 40,000 sang along to it in unison. This made the lead singer so emotional that he struggled to compose himself for quite some while.
What makes this song poignant for me, however, is that I attended the 3 days of this festival with my 13 year-old youngest son. Anyone who has parented children through their teenage years, or anyone who has passed through the teenage years themselves, will know that the age of 13, or thereabouts, can be a watershed in the parent/child relationship: the natural process of growing older usually means that from this age onwards children begin to spend more and more time with their mates and girl/boy-friends, and less and less time with their parents. Nothing wrong with that: nothing worse than a clingy parent desperately trying to hold on to their kids; nevertheless, looking back, it can be a poignant time for parents.
It became particularly poignant for me on account of my son experiencing some very difficult times throughout his subsequent teenage years. For a long long time the happy carefree son with whom I had attended that festival became a distant stranger – not literally, of course, but perhaps some of you will know what I mean.
Anyway, before I start blubbering, let’s get on to the song! I’ve actually chosen a cover version and not the original version of the song that I heard that day. This is because, in my opinion, the female vocalist on the cover version puts incredible emotion into the song and sings it beautifully. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I like staring – sorry, Lou, I mean glancing – at her tits.