Radio LBB: Keeley @ Native’s November Nostalgia

This time of year, always gets me nostalgic. Anyone else? 

Yes?! Because you feel no shame in loving the fact that the Christmas tunes are on in the shops, and that Mariah still gets you feeling festive, but it’s the nostalgia that gets me. 

The things that conjure up the memories, that evoke feelings that aren’t describable, that take you back, but bring you forward at the same time. A wry smile, a reflective tear, a laugh out loud snapshot of time, that’s replayed and replayed, over and over. Recently I’ve been reminded that like most people, my life and that of my friends and those around me, has been defined by music, whether I realised it at the time or not. 

Knowing how this makes me feel, is exactly why it’s so important to harness this and ensure that the audience can feel this too, why music is important as the literal soundtrack to our lives. 

I’ve gone nostalgic and given some reasons why.

1. The Drifters – Kissing in the Back Row of the Movies – the soundtrack of my childhood. Listening on vinyl to my parents signed copy (when they saw them at the Starlight Rooms in Enfield!). Those incredible voices. 

2. Whitney Houston – I Wanna Dance with Somebody – I remember the record cover, the white vest and jeans. Dancing round the room with my mum, and then years later with my girlfriends, still doing it in fact. The voice of a generation. 

3. St Elmo’s Fire – John Parr – the time of Joel Schumacher and John Hughes fuelled afternoons, and crushes on 80s heartthrobs, wishing I would grow up to have friends like those. I do. 

4. Cosmic Girl – Jamiroquai – Went to every concert and listened religiously to every track. 

5. Where Love lives – Alison Limerick (although I love the Sam Feldt version) – years of dancing in clubs, singing into anything that resembled a microphone

6. It’s Alright I feel it – Nuyorican Soul , Jocelyn Brown – a feel good dance vibe, played continuously in my room at university. 

7. Love Will Bring Us Back together – Roy Ayers – I was a slave to the acid jazz genre in my teens/ 20s and Roy was one of the ubiquitous voices that influenced so many artists.  

8. Dreams – Fleetwood Mac – driving a Cadillac down the west coast of the US, Thelma & Louise style road trip with a girlfriend. Good times.  

9. Ho Hey – Lumineers – My wedding song,  or at least the song we walked into the room as Mr & Mrs. 

10. Candy – Paolo Nutini – the track my son arrived into the world to. How can I not love it. 

So, go on get nostalgic and admit your guilty pleasures over some egg nog this Christmas, it will make you smile, trust me.