those were the days my friend

I've been noticing things in the last few days that I hadn't noticed before. All of those 'Subway' shops around Dublin have the same peculiar fake smell about them. It's rotten. I've also been wondering why every block of old corporation flats have those strange white plaster statuettes in their windows? There were lots of other things that I noticed but now I can't remember anything about them.

I was back in the suburbs where I grew up over the last couple of days and i remarked on how everything seemed smaller but still much the same. This area would have played a huge part in my musical development. I first learnt to read music and play a trombone in the local brass band hall. A few metres on and I passed by my old primary school and saw the conker trees I'd spend hours throwing sticks at every September. I also passed the community centre where the local disco took place. This hall bore witness to several gigs I played with my first ever band. It was a wonderful time. It was also where I decided that I'd like to be a DJ. There was a guy who'd DJ after the bands had played and he'd often need a hand setting up his gear. He was a nice bloke but he was your run of the mill Wedding/Special occasion DJ who'd lob a few teen favourites into his set list for our benefit. I also remember him throwing in a bit of heavy metal to pander to the many rockers that would show up. Peculiarly enough, this community centre was the place where my mother thought it might be nice for me to attend disco dancing lessons when I was eight years old. My abiding memory of those lessons was Joe Dolce's 'Shaddap you face'.

Anyhow, things have moved on in the intervening years and I'm no longer forced to dance to that tune. Instead I'm still delighting in bringing music into my life and others. I'm trying to do the MP3 hosting thing for the first time so here's hoping. It's New Zealand's finest, Fat Freddys Drop.

Hope - Fat Freddy's Drop