It’s John Lewis Christmas ad season, for those who celebrate, and this year’s features a dad who’s thoughtful son buys him a 12” vinyl dance track which transports said dad back to his pre-parenthood clubbing days. He loses himself in the music and memories before thoughts of his son bring him back to the present day for a warm embrace.
I hadn’t given any thought to Ultravox! (exclamation mark faithfully observed) for years until John Foxx was on Adam Buxton’s podcast. The choice of guest came as a slight surprise, but makes sense when I think about Buckles’ self-made jingles, and they clearly share a lot of musical background based on the ramble-chat.
Ultravox! were one of the key bands of my mid teens. I was a few years too young to follow the John Foxx era in real time, and this was in the early 80s. So I headed for the depthless Amazon Music catalogue and fired up an ‘Island years’ compilation. It was decades since I had heard these songs, but as I sang along in my head, and occasionally out loud, I was word perfect on My Sex, The Wild, The Beautiful and the Damned, and nailed the final ROckWrock! on the track of that name (even if I had forgotten the eccentric capitalisation). It was all a cheerfully nostalgic soundtrack to my afternoon’s work, if an ‘algia’ can be cheerful.
Then came the final track, Just for a moment. I was transfixed, and when Foxx’s vocal shifted for the lines, ‘We’ll never leave here, never. Let’s stay in here forever’ I wasn’t looking out over a laptop to my garden, finishing a bit of work before a couple of days off. I was sitting in my tiny teenage bedroom, playing Just for a Moment time and again. The words ‘We’ll never leave here never’ could have sounded like a terrible threat at the time but were instead an invitation to imagine when they would be an aspiration and a comfort instead. I played the song another 3 times before I could concentrate enough to send my emails and set the out of office.
What tracks have done that to you? Not just evoked memories but transported you back to the very place and emotions when they entered your lives?
A lovely bit of writing there @Gatz Before I can come up with an answer of my own, I came here to say how much I enjoyed Adam Buxton’s chat with John Foxx. I was a big fan of his solo stuff and stuck with him, as teenagers do, while his albums dwindled in quality and his singles, hard to get in Dublin and with their arty collage covers. failed to dent the charts. Throughout those years I can’t recall reading anything much about him at all so he remained an enigmatic figure. For this reason it was so lovely to hear his tales of tin baths and a miner dad, drinking sessions with Mark E. Smith and descriptions of London as punk was emerging. He came across as such a lovely contented soul and his response to being asked about Vienna was particularly pleasing. I hope he does more interviews in the future.
I can do this, but I am not sure how I do it. Occasionally I am listening to something I have heard hundreds of times, maybe a Beatles track and something transports me back almost 50 years to when I first heard it, and I get the feeling that I had on first hearing the track. It’s a nice experience.
The Beatles new single is out.
Who’s got a tranny*?
Two hours later after listening to utter dross, at last – Paperback Writer ….
*a “portable” radio weighing approximately 10 lbs
Two days later, having bought the single, flipping it over and discovering a new, even more exciting Beatles.
Not a specific track per se, but to follow the Beatles thread, it was the anticipation I felt in 1995 before Free as a Bird came out. Not only anticipation, but a fear that I might not like it, the excitement of thinking about going to the record shop and bringing it home and so on. Suddenly I had all those thoughts that I had only really experienced as an obsessed teenager in the 60s and had completely forgotten about – it was very strange, and oddly heartwarming.
Straight back to the living room at home in my parent’s house, headphones on, a few weeks before my fifteenth birthday.
A pedant writes…. John Lewis Christmas ad, fathers and sons reconnecting, positive messaging, if you can’t find the words find the gift etc etc etc.
Yebbut, John Lewis don’t sell records. It’s annoying me.
Incredibly, they do – sort of – through a link-up with Rough Trade. Which means selection (37) and prices are baffling. Including an exclusive of the advert music.
https://www.johnlewis.com/rough-trade-john-lewis-christmas-advert-2025-where-love-lives-12-inch-vinyl-record/p114390034