25 Years Since....March 1993

It's that time again to look at what I was enjoying 25 years ago:

Shaggy - Oh Carolina

25 years ago my favourite song was this, "Oh Carolina" by Shaggy. It seems a bit of an odd choice for someone who's favourite band at the time was Guns n Roses but I guess I was yet to reach the point of my life where my music tastes were entirely devoted to one particular scene.

I loved this record so much that when we were shopping for sunglasses for me to take on holiday I said I wanted sunglasses like Shaggy's in the video. The pair I got in the end looked nothing like them but was probably as close as I could find at the time.

We wouldn't see Shaggy again until the summer of 1995 by which point I listened to very little outside of rave so didn't really pay much attention to his mid 90s music. Then after a few years away he came back with "It Wasn't Me" which I liked so much I bought the single.

The Shamen - Re-Evolution

I didn't realise this was The Shamen at the time, I had no idea what it was other than a strange tune that kept appearing on the Evening Session on Radio 1.

On first hearing it I didn't realise it was an actual song, I thought it was someone on the radio talking over some background music, a bit like what they did for "Our Tune". Think it was probably when the drums came in that I realised it was an actual song.

Sybil - When I'm Good and Ready

A song that reminds me of school discos in the days when I thoroughly enjoyed them. I can picture myself now in the school hall giving it some welly on the dancefloor to this tune .

I think this served the purpose it was supposed to serve, a simple dance record that's great to dance along to. Nothing revolutionary, just something that's really enjoyable.

This was one of the final  Top 40 records from the Stock & Waterman camp and was also the final Top 40 hit for Sybil who made her Top 40 debut in 1987 but despite being around for 6 years she only had 5 Top 40 hits.

Bluebells - Young At Heart

I had no idea at the time that this was an old song being rereleased, particularly as it reached number one and the band appeared on Top of the Pops to perform it.

The reason for it's rerelease was it's appearance on a Volkswagen Golf advert. The band had long split up and had reunited just for the Top of the Pops appearance.

I discovered it was an old song when watched VH1 Classic and it gave the year as 1983, though it actually charted in 1984 on it's first release. It wasn't originally by the Bluebells, it was an album track on the debut album of Bananarama, though guitarist Bobby Bluebell wrote it with Sioban Fahey of Bananarama.

Therapy? - Screamanger

I wasn't so much listening to this at the time but more playing the opening riff on my guitar very often.

This was the second and highest charting hit for Therapy? though their first one "Teethgrinder" passed me by at the time.

It would be another year or so until the album this appears on, "Troublegum" would be released. A friend of mine bought the album but didn't like it so gave it to me. When I got to the point of my life where I allowed myself to listen to music outside of Rave, "Troublegum" was one of my pre-rave albums I started listening to again until I lent it to somebody and never got it back.