Anyone who knows me, knows that music rules my life. In every sense of the word rule. Whether that be ruling my sleeping pattern, my bank balance or my mood. If I’m not in HMV or a dingy Independent record store, I’m at a gig, if I’m not at a gig I’m at home trawling through Soundcloud for the ‘next big thing’ to write about. Every aspect of my working life since I was 16 (which feels a long time ago now) has involved music in some form. Whether that’s been managing artists, putting on gigs, writing about gigs myself or doing work experience at Glastonbury. I’m also forever in debt to my family for bringing me up on classic records from an early age and saying yes rather than no every time I nagged for gig tickets or 2 for £10 CDs from HMV. I say all this because without each of the things above I probably wouldn’t be sitting here writing this piece now. Each of the 5 songs in this piece represent a different part of my life from the beginning right through to the present day. I’m Jake Marley and this is My Life In Songs!
Villiers Terrace // Echo & The Bunnymen
Being a 90s kid sounds cool when you say it now but how many of us were actually ’90s kids’ in the sense of all that goes with the term? Back then I had no impact on what music I listened to. Being lucky enough to be brought up on a mixture of Merseyside bands and classic 80/90s records has had a big impact on my loyalty to local music even to this day, as well as my appreciation for classic records.
This first pick goes out to my parents, Echo & The Bunnymen. I could honestly pick 30 tracks by The Bunnymen to put in this piece due to the simply phenomenal records that are Ocean Rain, Porcupine and Crocodiles but the track I’ve eventually chosen is one that has become a favourite of mine in recent years, culminating in me hearing it live at a gig in Liverpool. ‘Villiers Terrace’.