One of the few good things about being stuck on an aircraft for seven and a half hours is that it forces you to do something that passes the time. I had had enough of the book I am reading at the moment (an excellent Graham Hurley book, but not for several hours), I had recently seen (and paid for at the cinema) the only film I fancied (the very excellent 'The Descendants'). So I switched to my default in these situations - and grabbed my i-Pod.
On the plane I usually ignore my playlists and just flick around in the artists list. For some reason I stopped at something I hadn't listened to for years - literally. But I was immediately transported back to my youth, it's amazing how powerful music is for doing that.
'Tell Us The Truth' was the first album by Sham 69, released in January 1978, when I was all of 15 years of age. I still remember my brother buying it and bringing it back home, after which I commandeered it and spent hours in my bedroom (shared with my brother) being blown away by the sheer power and raw emotion. What was unusual was that side one was a live recording (bum notes included), side two was recorded in the studio. Few songs exceeded two minutes. It was before lead singer Jimmy Pursey and the rest of the band hit the commercial highs and appeared on Top of the Pops. Before they started behaving like 'real' pop stars and lost the plot. The songs had messages for the youth, they were played and sung like they meant them. I identified with the lyrics and the energy - as you do at that age.
And for 30 minutes on that Boeing 777 last night I was back in 1978, and loving it. Do 15 year-olds get that buzz from music these days?
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