An influential artist

Asking any music fan about who they like is always a difficult task. There are so many bands out there that we often forget about the ones that have influenced us the most. more often than not there is a special event that threw us into the arms of that band, and this is what this feature my Rapture is about. Maybe you will read it and it might make you think of how it got you started.

So have a read and a little listen.

How much of a cliché is it, when you say music has been in my life since I can remember?  It is a huge one, but one that is so true to many music fans, I included in this statement. My Dad is a massive music fan, and it is him that I have to thank for my music taste, and one of the most influential artists I have come across. My Mum played her part with the Motown and Northern Soul. Even my beloved Nan and Granddad were exposing me to the music from their era whenever they looked after me, from Nat King Cole, Andrea Bocelli, to ol' blue eyes himself Frank Sinatra. So it was no surprise that I picked up the music bug really.      

My most vivid memory from childhood, is waking up on a Sunday morning to the sound of my Dad singing (badly – don't ever ask for him to sing China girl) whilst doing the general things round the house, and getting our Sunday roast ready. He would sing anything from Bowie, The Smiths and Pink Floyd. As the years went by his singing never improved but the bands did. Waking up to China girl was now waking up to 'What took you so long' by The Courteeners and with a hangover this was not a good combination.

Although these bands changed from week to week one always remained consistent and that was Pink Floyd. When I was developing my own music taste I never understood the true meaning of Pink Floyd and why my Dad loves them as much as he does. The comments came such as “they are a classic”, “they have amazing songs”, “the lyrics are so powerful” and “the guitar playing is beyond anything else out there that you are listening to”. Probably at this point I was going through my girly boy band stage (this lasted a year) but I still could not understand what the fuss was about them. So I just trudged along listing to Nirvana, Suede, Manic Street Preachers and such not.

That was until something quite prolific was about to happen in my life. It is amazing how things change when a situation arises. You see things differently and you certainly listen to music differently, you try to get where the writer is and feel how they are feeling. This something has shaped me to be who I am today. My Nan was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour. This woman had been in my life from the beginning and now she was not going to be there. She had always taught me to be who I wanted to be, was only round the corner from where I lived, and one huge influence on my life. So coming to terms with not having her was something I could not get my head round, but the world still keeps going even though you are going through something so big and hurtful. It is only here I that realise the power that Pink Floyd actually has, and why my Dad loved them so much. It was in the final stages of my Nan's illness that I picked up on it. I had come back from seeing her in the hospice and Dad was doing whatever he was doing round the house, and it was playing. The song that would change me and the way that I listened and thought about music. That song was 'comfortably numb' by Pink Floyd.

This whole song summed up everything that I was feeling, and how my Nan was in those final stages of the illness. If you have ever seen or been through watching someone battle cancer, then you will understand this song and how it relates to everything you and the person going through it are feeling. “There is no pain you are receding, a distant ship smoke on the horizon, you are only coming through in waves, your lips move but I can't hear what you are saying”. This particular lyric will be forever with me and will always make me think of my Nan. She was comfortably numb towards the end.

So from this horrible loss, I gained a new band, not much of a consolation, but was something that she gave to me before she went. From this I delved further and further into Pink Floyd much to my father gloating and saying the obligatory “I told you so”. But I didn't care I just wanted to hear more of this band. I was hooked from then on and have been ever since. If I am ever caught off guard and hear 'Comfortably numb', then it does bring a tear to my eye, of course it will, that event was a life changing one. One of my other favourite Floyd songs is the early one 'See Emily play', which ironically enough was penned in my college, where I studied journalism. Another is of course 'Shine on you crazy diamond’ all 7 parts I might add. You can not listen to it in a single part. I often listen to that on my bus journey home from work. Listening to each chord played, each bass line and all the other effects going on in the back ground.

Pink Floyd are a classic bands, who have stood the test of time. I only wish that I had listened to my Dad sooner and took advantage from an earlier age. But it is these things that make us who we are, and I doubt that if things had not of happened they way they have, I wouldn't be concentrating on my career as a music journalist. I do know one thing for sure that I will be introducing my children (when I have them) to the music of Pink Floyd and any others I feel they need to know about. Although I won't torture them with my Dads singing.