Reconnecting with old vibes just a click away

British elder statesman of rock, Paul Weller. Pic supplied to Herald on Sunday, September 2004 NZH 7mar08 - MISSING IN ACTION: Paul Weller, former frontman of The Jam. NAD 30jun08 -

IF I TOLD you that I had spent much of last weekend time-travelling you might assume that my shortage of food money had forced me into the woods to forage, at which point I must have accidentally stumbled upon a supply of magic mushrooms, that when ingested, would account for "my trip".

It all started with a single thought, a long forgotten song title, That's Entertainment by The Jam.

I searched them on You Tube and was magically transported back to 80s and once there I didn't want to leave. I replayed the song, over and over. Read the comments from other viewers, who appreciated the trip down memory lane just as much as me.

Rediscovering The Jam bought back memories of other songs and artists. XTC was next with their hit song Making Plans for Nigel. I vividly recalled the time I went to the EMI record shop in Downtown, Auckland and purchased their album, Drums and Wires.

The hours spent in our Mt Eden home, dancing and singing along. XTC led to The Cure which evoked memories of a New Year's spent at Mt Maunganui with my best friend Kim.

I could almost smell the surf on the breeze and taste the sickly sweet cocktails we thought were so cool at the time.

The Cure then took me to Tears for Fears and the legendary dance scene in their song Mad World, so often wrongly attributed to American group, REM. This was British music at its very best. There were even comments from the youth of today wishing they had been around in this musical hay-day of sorts.

New Wave music was far more than just songs and bands, it was an era, an image, a fashion.

Hair teased to the point of it nearly begging for mercy, T-shirt sleeves rolled up to the shoulder, winkle-picker boots and stove-piped jeans you almost needed to paint on and most certainly needed assistance to peel off.

High on life and the fumes of hairspray we danced liked we'd never danced before.

Revisiting the 80s was a blast and though I have a lot of the music on CD and even old vinyl, You Tube gives you that extra imagery to watch while you listen, it's like a double dose of memory medicine, so when I hit on new wave band, Bronski Beat teaming up with another favourite of mine, Eartha Kitt, I was treated to pictures of her in costume as the best ever Catwoman in the original Batman. That famous purr sent shivers through me.

Kitt took me Etta James and At Last, which commuted me to Nina Simone and Ne Me Quitte Pas. Proof that music really is a universal language.

Her performance is so stunning that I don't have to know French to understand what it is she is singing about, I can feel it. I am there.

Just as I was there in the late 30s and 40s, when I clicked on the Mills Brothers performing a live rendition of Paper Doll and The Ink Spots crooning to me, their hit song Do I Worry. I fell in love with that era of music thanks to a TV series called The Signing Detective. I treated myself to the soundtrack and had listened to it hundreds of times. I never knew until I viewed them on You Tube that they were both Afro-American groups. Next up the playlist was Bing Crosby and The Andrew Sisters singing Don't Fence Me In and Accentuate The Positive and sultry songstress, Ella Fitzgerald, bought me close to tears when she sang Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall. Not an auto tuner or sound engineer in sight. Music pure and simple, harmonies that touch your heart.

I had travelled in time, thanks to You Tube. Like a poor man's Tardis, available to the masses, I had gone back nearly 80 years and had lived or re-lived the music that inspired so many memories. No passport necessary, free of charge and great for the soul.

The next best thing to making memories is having the ability to re-live them. I'm already planning my next trip and hope that you might consider doing some time travelling of your own.