Hi everyone,

This week, I thought I would look back at my childhood and give a couple of examples that I remember from long car journeys growing up.  The car looked something like this. A Ford Sierra. Ours was blue.

Back in the old days there were two cassettes that were destined to come on anytime the family went on a road trip.  This could have been down to London or up to Scotland. Either way, the playlist would always include these examples.

The first was Jeff Wayne’s musical version of The War of the Worlds. It’s hard to believe that this whole thing is only about an hour and a half.  When I was young, I envisaged it as some sort of epic that would span an entire journey.  Richard Burton’s narration is seared into my consciousness forever, marvellous performance as it is. This is m,y favourite song from the album; a great song in itself raised to a different level by Burton’s poignant voiceover.

The other thing bound to come on was Dad’s ‘Home Newcastle’ album, which was a compilation of tracks inspired by or coming from my childhood home in the North East. These are two of my favourites off the album.

The first is Home Newcastle by Busker, a rousing tribute to the people of Newcastle that is still heard at St James’ Park on match days.

The second is a far more melancholy affair, Durham Town by Roger Whittaker.

I’m trying to think of other tapes that we had in the car back then. There was a Joan Armatrading album, Steeleye Span, another compilation effort from Max Boyce and that’s about all I can remember. If it was Mum’s car, then it would be Elaine Paige, Billy Joel or Blood Brothers.

What do you guys listen to on long car journeys? Do you have any similar recollections? Let me know in the comments.

Richard

The picture of the Sierra comes with kind permission from Rudolf Stricker – Own work, Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5526413