1000 word Wednesday - The tracks of my years

A couple of weeks ago, before we went into lockdown, I was asked to join Caroline Cooper for her Coffee Break hour on Channel 1, Radio Odstock based at Salisbury District Hospital about the tracks that have the most memories for me. It was actually quite hard whittling it down to 7 tracks from my 49 years on this wonderful, if not slightly broken planet, but here are the tunes which evoke many a great memory…

Les Misérables - Bring him home (Colm Wilkinson) https://youtu.be/qsYnhVITf9E
In my younger years my fabulous family would head up to London once a year to see a show. We saw many a good musical from Bugsy Malone to Starlight Express but the one that I remember most was Les Misérables. We saw it just after the show had opened and I blubbed for most of it. This particular song has always been my favourite and whenever I hear it start on the radio I stop whatever I’m doing and turn the volume up.

Black Eyed peas - I gotta feeling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSD4vsh1zDA
Imagine the scene. It’s 8.30pm on May 18th 2016 and you are at the South Col on Everest which hovers at around 8000m. It’s called the death zone because you cannot sustain life for long up there. It's bleak and very cold. We arrived at around 1.3pm that day, found our tent, got some water on the boil and tried to rest. Rest, eating and drinking are all relative up there. We chilled in our tent with our oxygen masks resting over our faces on a mere 1ltr a minute, trying to recoup some of the lost energy from the 5 hour and 1000m climb up from Camp 3 on the Lhotse Face. When Rolfe Oostra Mountaineer at 360 Expeditions and I were getting our kit together for our summit attempt, Kevin had been trying to get my handwarmers into action and succeeded brilliantly. After a final check of my kit, crampons strapped on, harness correctly buckled, gloves, rucksack, jumar, cow’s tail and my all-important oxygen all given the green light and I was off. Dorjee Gyelzen Mountaineer said to me as I started to walk away from my tent and across the South Col ‘go at your own pace Jo, you’ve got this’ and as he finished The BEPs came on with ‘I gotta feeling that tonight’s gonna to be a good night’. I was ready and raring to go. The rest, as they say, is history.

Louis Armstrong - What a wonderful world https://youtu.be/CWzrABouyeE
This one was played as we left the chapel at the crematorium after my Granny’s funeral just over a month ago. It’s a tune which I have loved for a long time and evokes warm feelings not just in the words but in Louis’ voice. I’m sure it’s a favourite of many a human and is most definitely a family favourite.

Avicii - Hey brother
https://youtu.be/l4bHupWhuZE
What a tune! A good friend of mine, Roger Cook, was one of my crew on a London to Paris a few years ago with Discover Adventure and had this CD in the van. As we drove back to the hotel at the end of a 120-mile day we blasted this out with the windows rolled down. I hadn’t heard of Avicii before, they are a firm favourite right now. It’s a great anthem for crew as we all work together and there is literally nothing we wouldn’t do for each other. One team! It’s also very apt for right now where we are in it together. If you listen to the show (link below) you’ll hear that I had my words mixed up from another Avicii song (whoops) but they all mean a great deal to me in different ways.

Michael Bublé - Haven’t met you yet https://youtu.be/1AJmKkU5POA
Well, what can I say about Mr Bublé other than he’s a legendary crooner in my eyes! I always suggest to clients that on summit night they stick on a playlist of their favourite tunes to get them into a happy place, one ear in and one listening out for what’s going on around them and be absorbed by good memories. It works well for me and Michael always gets me bobbing along beside my groups. Having been single for the past 6 years (very happily I may add) this is most definitely one of my personal anthems. My adventure partner in crime is out there somewhere and will have to stay out there at the moment until lock down is lifted! Who knows, I may do one of my Tesco deliveries to my future partner!!

Dolly Parton - 9 to 5
https://youtu.be/UbxUSsFXYo4
Bless Dolly! How can you not want to dance around your kitchen when Dolly comes on the radio or pops up in shuffle! I don’t listen to many of her songs but have a couple of favourites and this is up there. I haven’t worked a 9-5 job for a long while now and certainly resonated with some of the lyrics when I did!

One Republic - I lived
https://youtu.be/z0rxydSolwU (please watch from the beginning)
This is one of my most recent lyrical memories and takes me back to SayYesMore Yestival 2019. I had spoken on the main stage on the Saturday evening and it had been an emotional 10 minutes about the 7 summits, putting things on hold, grief and my Dad. I don’t remember a word I said but apparently it went well! Just as Dave Cornthwaite was doing his final Thank Yous on the Sunday he asked us all to head to the group What’s App page for the lyrics to this song and as Andrew Bartlett hit the play button, on came this incredible tune. We had most definitely lived that weekend and some.

If you fancy listening to my hour of chatter and the tunes above then head to this link – http://tiny.cc/spsamz and fast forward to 58 minutes! (there was a slight technical hitch at the start of the 1st track, keep listening on!)

What are would your Tracks of your Years be?

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