Jane Hardman’s Playlist
Just Got Lucky – Jo Boxers
Much of my teens and early 20s were spent travelling around to see bands. This song always reminds me of ten of us piling into the back of a Bedford van and driving to Tameside. What a gig!
So Natural, B Boy Mix – Lisa Stansfield, frankie foncett
Goa, 1994 (before all the tourists!). Every night we ate at a beach shack, which had just a few tables and chairs in the sand, a charcoal pit and a cassette deck. Whenever I hear this mix I’m back there, by the shore in the moonlight.
At the River – Groove Armada
The early 2000s tend to blur together for me, as we were bringing up our children and juggling our jobs. At home we had a constant backdrop of music, recently collated by our three daughters into a throwback playlist. Many of the tracks take me right back there, but this one really captures that dreamy, blurry, quality of long mellow summers of music, friends and small children.
Mr Brightside – The Killers
I was never particularly a Killers fan, so when they headlined V Festival, I stayed in the tent while the others went off to watch them. Halfway through the set, they played Mr Brightside and the crowd erupted. I sprinted across the field, singing at the top of my lungs, spotted the others at the front, and squirmed my way through to them in time for us all to mosh together!
Goodbye Wishful Dreaming – Tony & Derek Hardman
My dad and uncle performed and recorded as a folk duo in the 1970s. All through my childhood they’d rehearse every week in the bedroom next to mine, and I would go to sleep to the sound of my dad’s bass guitar and uncle’s vocal coming through the wall. I know every word of every song on their album. Sadly, my uncle is no longer with us, so hearing his voice again is always bittersweet, but very comforting.
