Throwback Thursday Week 4: Music

In true 'Throwback Thursday' style today I wanted to look back at the music I listened to whilst I was growing up. I remember listening to cassette tapes, followed by CD's when I was younger and music has been and still is a huge part of my life. I've never really been a TV or film addict and would much rather listen to a new album in the sunshine or whilst driving my car instead of sitting in a cinema.
  I have also always loved the thought of having a physical CD in front of you. With technology taking over most of our lives it is so easy now to download the music straight to your phone but I love the concept of seeing a CD and the album cover. I do still download a lot of the music I listen to but if there is a particular CD I want I will go out and buy it. 
 The music I listened to growing up was inspired by the music that others around me was listening to. My mum has always been a huge fan of Robbie Williams and Take That so I've been familiar with their work for a long time. I also obviously developed my own music taste as I was growing up and I wouldn't particularly say that I have a particular genre of music. I'm open to listening to any song and if I like it I will play it again and again regardless of who it is sung by or how old or popular the song is. 

  I remember at one stage growing up I was a little obsessed with buying the 'Now That's What I Call Music' CD's and would always get them as birthday and Christmas presents as well as buying them myself with my own pocket money. The first CD of this collection I got was Now 54 and this was released 11 years ago back in 2003. I was 8. After this CD I didn't get another until Now 57 but I have every single release from Now 57 all the way up to Now 80 I think. 
 Another huge part of my music collection when I was younger was dominated by the band Blue. I was literally obsessed with their music and I actually have all of their albums. I remember buying one of them in Woolworths and playing the Guilty album all Christmas Day one year. I even saw Blue in concert at the old Wembley Arena and this was one of my earliest memories of a concert. Their album Guilty came out again in 2003 and I'm surprised the CD still works considering how often I listened to it.
 I love rediscovering old albums that I loved and so when I came across this one last year when sorting through my music it was played solid for a good two weeks. My 18 year old self loved it as much as my 8 year old self all those years ago. 
 Atomic Kitten was another band that I used to listen to a lot. Their favourite album of mine was Feels So Good but when I listened back to it I found that I didn't recognise a lot of the songs on there. Along with Atomic Kitten I also liked the Sugababes but I was never a huge fan of Girls Aloud and I don't own any of their albums or particularly like any of their songs. I have bad memories of their performance on the X Factor when they all wore gold glittery dresses and didn't sing that well!
 The final band that I remember listening to a lot was Steps. I discovered this band through one of my childhood friends and remember watching the tape version of this album showing all the music videos round my friends house multiple times.
 Although Steps got back for the TV show 'The Big Reunion' I didn't watch it because I wanted to keep the memories of when I used to listen to them as a kid and I knew it wouldn't be the same as when I loved them all those years ago.
  Although I haven't featured them here there are so many other artists and bands that I listened to throughout my childhood and whilst growing up such as: The Backstreet Boys, Westlife, Busted, McFly & S Club. Although music has changed over the years and my taste has developed I really enjoy listening back to the old albums and reliving the songs that I used to play on repeat on the good old portable CD player or even on a tape in the car.

Introducing: Throwback! + Week 1: Year 11 Prom

Sometimes there is nothing better than looking back at old photographs and bringing back old memories. These events could have happened just a few weeks, months or even years ago, yet living in a digital age means that we are able to document our lives now even more then ever. Over the next few weeks in true 'Throwback Thursday' style I am going to be reminiscing, taking a trip down memory lane.
  These posts will include photos and stories from my past and will include some of the biggest events that have happened to me in the past 18 years. From growing up to attending Prom in 2011, I'm going to look back at the music I used to listen to and the books I used to read as well as sharing some memorable stories.

My first throwback will be to July 2011, nearly three years ago now, the night of my Year 11 prom. After finishing all of our GCSE exams my whole year was invited to spend one more evening together before we all left school and went on to sixth form, college or even work. I had been on the Prom Committee, helping to organise the evening and like my peers, was so excited for the night.
   When the day finally arrived, I certainly made the most of it. Although we didn't need to be at the venue until around 7-7.30pm I actually started getting ready around mid-day. I walked to my Mum's work and we went to my hairdresser's who styled and curled my hair  for me. I knew exactly what I wanted and absolutely loved what my hairdresser did and the style lasted the whole night!
  After my hair was finished it was a quick rush back to my home town where I quickly popped into town to buy a new foundation and to get my nails done. I loved my nails, as they matched my dress perfectly and were so intricate because I had floral patterns painted by hand too.
After leaving town I remember  not having much time at all to do anything more to my makeup apart from touching up the stuff I was already wearing. I then got on my dress and put on my accessories and after a few photos made my way down to the seafront in my Mum's car.
 Around 5.30pm myself and my friends met at the seafront where we had professional photos taken of us by a brilliant local photographer. Our friend had won the shoot at a prom fair type thing a few month previous and it was lovely to catch up with friends and have so many photos taken before we actually went to prom. As we had someone to take the photos for us, no-one missed out on having their photo taken and we were so lucky with the weather because it was a gorgeous evening.
 After we had our photos taken our transport arrived to take us to the venue. Myself and a few of my friends went in a classic white limo, complete with a playlist of music which we could control and a complementary bottle of non-alcoholic drink and the others went in a vintage car, which matched one of our friend's dress.
  I remember us all being so happy on the way to prom, singing and dancing along to so many good songs and about 20 minutes later we arrived at the Golf Club where our prom was held.
 

When we arrived there was already loads of people there. There were some rather interesting dresses and suits admittedly but overall everyone looked amazing.
  Our school year was always big and so when our teachers attempted to get a whole year photo it didn't exactly work. Even to this day I don't think I've seen this attempt but I know it can't be good because there was no organisation to it at all. There was tall people in front of short people and I'm pretty sure even standing on a table didn't get everyone in the shot.
  After the attempted photo shoot we went inside and were seated for our main meal. For starters I had chicken with parma ham I think (tasted like rubber), main was meant to be roast beef (but no Yorkshire puddings!) and for dessert I had chocolate torte (the best part.) After the average dinner we crammed onto the tiny dance floor and had lots of fun dancing to some of the classics.

 

Our prom night ended around midnight when our limo arrived to take us home and the music stopped playing.  We then went on to a house party at a friend's house which ended a brilliant night although many of us were exhausted.
My Year 11 prom was absolutely amazing and I wouldn't have changed any of it. Although it was the last time I saw some people in my year, there was no better way to celebrate all the hard work and effort we had all put in throughout our GCSE's.
  Looking back on it now it's hard to believe that this Summer it was three years ago since Prom. So much has changed since that summer but it's so good to have the photos to look back at and the memories that go with them.