Today on my radio programme I was without Zoë for a change due to illness. So I felt a little lazy and just grabbed my seven library disks before I went out rather than sorting the spare bedroom record collection for hand-picked music to play.

I made the library disks back when working for Chorley FM (the real one, not the fake one – look it up). The idea was to have all the great tracks from hundreds of albums all in one convenient place. I spent hours sorting and chosing music for them, and they are quite useful for lazy DJing.

I found myself picking an odd assortment of records, and actually feeling a little bit down whilst I was doing it. I soon realised that part of this was because of the significance of the records I was picking. It turns out that most of them were records with a particular significance to memories I have of an old friend who sadly took her own life last year. We were very close, and back when we were at sixth form together we shared a passion for certain music together. So I found myself playing back to back a lot of these tracks from those days we spent together. Clannad’s ‘I see Red’, Tori Amos’s ‘Cornflake Girl’ and Kate Bush’s ‘This woman’s work’ amongst others. I even found time to play ‘Careful with that axe Eugene’ from Pink Floyd’s ill-fated Umagumma LP. That’s one you don’t often hear on the radio! But it was a track with special significance as we used to sit outside of an evening in Hitchin smoking and listening to it together over and over again.

I have happy memories of her, and sad ones too. Sometimes though I do remember old people from my past, sadly departed. Heck – at least I do spare a thought for these people. It’s still depressing at times though just how many people I knew who are dead now. The frailty of human life.