Soundtrack To My Life - Will

Soundtrack To My Life took a slightly different turn this week because I had the opportunity to try it out on the radio.  I occasionally pop into Preston FM to join Will on Chat City and I have finally found my spiritual home.  As is well documented on this blog, I adore being behind the microphone and Will very kindly lets me gatecrash co-present from time to time.

Will finds it as difficult as myself to narrow his choices down to just five tunes.  On his crib sheet for the show he had a total of thirteen songs that he wanted to talk about and managed to pick a few more whilst we were queuing them up for airing.  Also, as he said in the show, if I asked him to do this again at any point in the future he would probably choose different records.  Here are Will's final five choices.


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"Tennessee" Ernie Ford - Sixteen Tons

The first music I can remember is Freddie and the Dreamers who were the One Direction of their time.  I always believed my dad was a Johnny Cash fan but it turned out that although he liked Johnny Cash he didn't like him that much.  He only played his music because it was the only record he had.  He preferred Tennessee Ernie Ford,  Glen Campbell and Hank Williams Snr which, to our great annoyance, he would sing loudly after a night at the pub.

Roxy Music - Dance Away

Growing up is great when you like music.  It pour out of every radio and gramophone, TV, lifts and cars.  These days you can carry it around with you in little boxes with plugs in your ears.  In my youth, portable music was through a ghettoblaster which was something akin to carrying a sideboard around on your shoulder.  
My brother was the first of us to buy his own records and Marc Bolan and Roxy Music featured large in his collection

Deep Purple - Woman From Tokyo

My own preferences were in hard rock and prog rock.  Genesis, Yes and Jethro Tull were what I listened to most.  Heavy metal has deep roots - before the Scorpions and Jon Bon Jov. before Motorhead and even Black Sabbath there was Deep Purple and Led Zepplin.

The Clash - Rock The Casbah

The Eighties was full of changing and conflicting music styles.  Pop, punk, electronics and funk clashed into the charts and I'll never forget Joe Dolce's Shaddupa Your Face keeping the classic Vienna by Ultravox off the number one spot.
Punk nearly passed me by completely.  I survived David Cassidy, Donny Osmand and The Bay City Rollers but now the Sex Pistols, Sham 69 and The Clash came crashing and thrashing their way through the charts.  I still preferred by music with a little more melody and lyrics with a little more thought.

The Spice Girls - Wannabe

I almost chose REM's Everybody Hurts as my final song because it was chosen by a dear friend of mine to be played at her funeral.  Maz Craig achieved a Tae Kwon Do black belt, married a paratrooper and was a joy to know.  You never felt your troubles were serious enough in her company.  Maz died of Cystic Fibrosis in 1998 and was as forceful a case for organ donation as I could find. 
However, out of all the tunes that provoke strong memories, this one might surprise you.  There are certain songs that always reminded of my beautiful, talented, intelligent daughters - Ellen, Sarah and Ruth.  I remember them singing the soundtrack to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat or Abba songs when on long journeys down to Cornwall but this one is for my very own Sporty, Posh and Ginger.

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You can hear Will on Preston FM (103.2FM) on Thursdays between 10am and 12 noon if you live in the Preston area but he occasionally uploads his show and/or interviews to his Soundcloud account.  You can also catch him on Twitter as @willbuckley.

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