MUSIC

I struggle to understand people who don't like music.

It's like a drug for me - I need a really good fix of it to get me through the day. It picks me up if I need a shove, allows me to dance like a loon and come on, who doesn't sing in the shower?

As I was driving the boy home tonight the car was in total darkness and I had the music on really loud. He sat in the back with a lovely smile on his face and he drifted off to Snow Patrol's 'Chasing Cars'. It got me thinking about the music I grew up with, from records to tapes to CDs to iTunes.

My newly married mam and dad owned a record before they could afford a record player. They saved to listen to that Gilbert O' Sullivan classic, and years later they played the very same songs to me. I grew up with GOS and Chris De Burgh, touring all over the UK and Ireland to go to live concerts, sometimes 3 or 4 dates in the same tour. Aged 11 I was a huge 'Burgey' fan, knew the lyrics to every song and could even play a few diddies on my Casio Keyboard.

At 13 I was just too cool and ditched my parents music, hideously embarrassed by the whole affair. In the way that stroppy teenage girls do, I skulked around Woolworths on a Saturday, queueing to buy whatever reached number one the previous Sunday night. Some crap probably, but I'd bang it in the walkman and feel like the bees knees.

At 15 I was introduced to Acid Jazz and was completely blown away. I even took up the saxophone to play along with The Brand New Heavies, Guru and Jamiroquai. I was heavily into horns and strings (still am) and started to dismiss the top 40 for more soulful music. Stevie Wonder's 'Songs In The Key Of Life' was and still is an absolute favourite.

At 19 I went off to Uni with a big bag of angst and a CD collection full of The Cure and Placebo. I took to liking men who wore make-up and I wore heavy dark 'Molko' style eyeliner. The sax was replaced with an acoustic guitar, then an electric guitar, then all instruments were abandoned when I realised I had zero talent.

All great music, great times and great memories. The best thing is, at 31 I have an iTunes library packed with De Burgh, O Sullivan, Guru, Jamiroquai, Wonder, Placebo, The Cure and then Adele, Katy Perry etc (just to show I'm not spent yet).

It excites me to think that music is already a huge part of my boys life - maybe when he is in his thirties he'll have the equivalent of iTunes on his desktop, with a few gems in there from his old Ma.

I'd like to think so.