The Man Who…where did the time go?

23 years ago today a little-known band released whatโ€™s still their best album and changed my life. I was 11, I started to hear the likes of โ€˜Why does it always rain on me?โ€™ and โ€˜Driftwoodโ€™ on the radio and I was hooked. 

There was no YouTube in those days, so when they appeared on the airwaves it was a real treat for someone without a CD or tape player. Their songs seemed to speak to me and lift me up, even though so many of their detractors called them โ€˜negativeโ€™ or โ€˜depressing.โ€™ For me, they seemed to chime with the wonder I had for the world and all the things I wanted to do in life when Iโ€™d grow up. 

Fast forward 7 months and 1 day and itโ€™s Christmas โ€™99. Iโ€™ve opened all those big boxes and weird shaped presents we all get excited about, and thereโ€™s only a couple left under the tree. I pick it up, know itโ€™s a CD for my recently acquired player, and I dare to get excited. Will it beโ€ฆI think it might beโ€ฆhang onโ€ฆit really has come with a little thanks to Santa and his elves! 

I hold the artwork in my hands, read the booklet and cannot wait to get upstairs and play it. Thereโ€™s tracks on there that havenโ€™t made it onto the airwaves before so to say Iโ€™m excited would be an understatement. 

23 years later Iโ€™ve still got that album and Iโ€™m listening to it (on Amazon Music lol) as I write this. When I think where the last 23 years have gone, I know they were spent with the soundtrack to my life playing in the background. 

Hereโ€™s to many more happy yearsโ€ฆ

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