Soundtrack Of My Life - tracks 13-17

13.Evergreen (Streisand/Williams) BARBRA STREISAND
I never liked Streisand when growing up. Then I heard this song (in 1985) sung by someone else and by chance discovered that my mum had the original single. So began an interest in Barbra! In 1994 she announced her London concerts and sadly I knew that I just couldn't afford to go. Well, at some point my friend Plum told me that I had to keep a particular evening free but she wouldn't say why. I had a vague feeling that the date was around the time of the concerts, but couldn't allow myself to believe it was going to be a night at Barbra! After all, whatever it was for I was sure it would be something nice! Anyway the night came round and my initial suspicions proved to be true. Overall it wasn't the most amazing concert ever, but to be there when she was singing those signature numbers like "Evergreen", and "The Way We Were" - complete with clips from the movie on a big screen - was absolutely amazing!

14.Don't Leave Me This Way (Gamble/Huff/Gilbert) THE COMMUNARDS
Singing and dancing along to this song used to happen a lot when I was in the sixth form, so even though I don't have any specific stories about it, it does deserve a place on this list. We were kind of an odd bunch in the sixth form, as a large group of us had ended up congregating in the "end room" of the sixth form house. Apparently there were people who were scared of us! Very odd, although if you ventured to the end room then anything could happen. It wasn't unusual for paper planes to be set light to, and I can remember one landing on someone's head on one occasion. Generally it was quite a forward looking group of people and, although we had our inevitable fall outs, most of the time we got on. Although I do admit that if I spy the majority of these people on visits home I hide rather than speak to them! Aren't I awful!.....come satisfy meeeeeeeeee!

15.Wipe Out (Sufraris) THE SURFARIS
16.Theme From "Rupert The Bear" (Weston/Roker) JACKIE LEE
The sixth form had rather a large mod contigent and they were often to be found "shaking their tail feathers" and doing quite a strange dance to "Wipe Out". In time most of the sixth form seemed to absorb the steps and join in, and it became a staple of the sixth form disco! I often remember Mark, one of the mods, saying "no one has serious fun anymore" I understand what he meant, however it seemed a little ironic as his kind of fun seemed to be dancing little boxy steps and having a very serious expression. When they danced along to "Rupert" (allegedly a northern soul classic) it really seemed quite bizarre with them all dancing very seriously to this silly little song!Also I should mention that every Christmas, when I was little, Simon, my Uncle, would buy me the "Rupert" annual so the song also triggers that memory!

17.Me And Little Andy (Parton) DOLLY PARTONT
his is the silliest song ever, about a little girl knocking to come in from the rain with her little dog.....anyway she comes into shelter and "that night when they slept the angels took them both to heaven" . I remember playing it to Lesley (we have known each other since we were toddlers!) and her crying, so naturally everyone took the piss out of her....when her boyfriend arrived we told him about it and when he heard the song he blubbed too! He was a slightly less serious mod!