Friday 15 February 2008

That old devil called 80s nostalgia

Obviously like most people my age (99 years old as per my Profile, oh yes - get them celebratory telegrams ready for later this month when I turn 100), I can be reduced to weedy girly tears by a song I haven't heard for ages - and nowhere is this more apparent than in the new BBC series "Ashes to Ashes". No, the BBC is NOT paying me for plugging it, or I'd be doing this blog from a cosy Eames chair in a 10th floor corner office at Broadcasting House rather than perched on a rickety Ikea barstool out the back of a bookshop. AAAAAAAnyway. As is de rigueur (that's yer actual french) for anything set in the 80s, the soundtrack is BRILLIANT and so far has hit every single button - I can only assume someone My Age has sat there rubbing their tiny hands with glee and going "The Clash? Check. The Associates? Check. Bowie? Huh, read the title, divvy." HOWEVER. And this is where you realise you're driven by Nostalgia rather than Taste. It's when you hear the first 2 seconds of a song and feel the tears well up, and start frantically texting your dearest mates (all of whom are also watching due to an inexplicable but hormone-heavy crush on the sexist dinosaur that is Gene Hunt) going "Jon & Vangelis! I HATE this song!!!" despite your, by now, frankly snot-ridden sniffs of emotion. Yes, it is a truly awful song, the worst and laziest of New Age saddo music for Euro-weenies to seduce beyootiful laydies to, but having not heard it for (thankfully) a billion years, I found myself actually WHISKED back to 1981 (or nearest offer) and scrabbling around frantically for my electric-blue batwing-sleeved jumper, hair waffleriser, and pixie boots. I have mixed feelings about watching the rest of the series now (those of you reading this from abroad, i.e. not the UK, Google it - it's fabulous and will shortly be remade very badly in many other countries.) - I am no longer even pretending to follow the plot, I'm simply cruising hypnotically from one musical nostalgia trip to the next.