The Man Who…where did the time go?

23 years ago today a little-known band released what’s still their best album and changed my life. I was 11, I started to hear the likes of ‘Why does it always rain on me?’ and ‘Driftwood’ 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 ‘negative’ or ‘depressing.’ 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 I’d grow up. 

Fast forward 7 months and 1 day and it’s Christmas ’99. I’ve opened all those big boxes and weird shaped presents we all get excited about, and there’s only a couple left under the tree. I pick it up, know it’s a CD for my recently acquired player, and I dare to get excited. Will it be…I think it might be…hang on…it 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. There’s tracks on there that haven’t made it onto the airwaves before so to say I’m excited would be an understatement. 

23 years later I’ve still got that album and I’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. 

Here’s to many more happy years…