Today I bought my wife a record player. It’s something we have talked about buying and have never made it a priority. We are both palpably excited about it. Following our purchase, we browsed HMV and picked an album each. Something to get our collection started.  

We browsed every charity shop in town, looking for some finds to add to our collection. It struck me that I will remember this day – the day the record player came into our lives. I looked up from a stack of vinyl I was thumbing through, Des O’Connor, Brahms, cliff richard… and there I saw her looking just as excited as I was about finding some music that spoke to us in some way. A shared experience, our eyes met over music.

Music is magical. Somehow our brains can attach emotions and memories to musical phrase which can be so powerful. Just a few notes can evoke a powerful response and we can feel, just like we did years ago. It’s transporting.

Playing on my mind recently has been some incredible people who have made an impression on my life in one way or another. Touched by dementia or Alzheimer’s, they faced a future which was detached from their past. And yet in some cases music brought happiness, improved their mood and in moments of lucidity, connected them to a past that was otherwise forgotten. Never from our memories, only from their own. 

As a wellness focus at work, I have been connecting mood and mental health to music (I stress at this point that I am no expert, but just someone trying to make a small difference in their own way).

Connecting songs with the moment they became positively associated in people’s minds and seeing if we can harness that Magical association to keep us all a bit more positive. 

In addition there are some people, who in my mind are synonymous with specific songs. The joy of family holidays to the soundtrack of the beach boys, the first moments of marriage to the sound of sixpence none the richer.

My sister-in-law pops into my mind the moment FLOWERS plays on the radio, thoughts of my son brings tears to my eyes when I hear Here Comes The Sun and a

smile will be seen on my face to the tune of Hernando’s Hideaway when my mate’s chair collapsed mid-number.

As I browsed Lonnie Donnegan, Tchaikovsky & The Wurzels, the albums that I was most drawn to, were those voices that were just made for vinyl. Joni Mitchell, Karen Carpenter, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand…

With our new record player in our lives I wonder what memories are yet to be made? 

Exploring music seems like a bloody good way to spend some time and I love a bargain hunt too! Music is magic indeed.

I also bought the single of Please Don’t Go from 1992, which very much reminds me off sitting with my brother behind his disco booth when I wasn’t even 10yo!  (And that was many years ago!)

TIB