People-Music-Moments #5
James O'Donnell
"When you don't realise your in the moment until it's a memory" - Summer 91 Noizu. What an opening line to a song, and one that really struck a nerve when i first heard it. Oi Oiiiiiiiiii!!!!! My Name is James O'Donnell and I'm a Londoner currently working in Belfast and have been for the past 10yrs. I'm a Food and Beverage Manager and have been working in the hospitality business for nearly 20yrs! I've worked and lived in Ibiza and Italy and that's where you will find some of my musical choices come from..... In terms of what music I like, it ranges from Indie to Trance, Hip-Hop to Pop, House to Grime, Swing to Old Skool 90's and of course I was brought up on UK Garage! Basically I'm into most genres, but it all depends on the mood I'm in and to be honest the music I listen to or the tune that comes on the radio can instantly change my mood set in an instant. I often get public transport or take the dog out for long walks and will always have my headphones in, checking out the new music playlists on Spotify and checking out tracks from artists that I haven't heard from in a long time. I'll also have go to songs on play-lists to change the way I'm feeling or enhance the way I am, whether it will be tracks to get me out of being down and gloomy or tracks to get me into a right buzz for the day. When I got asked to do this, there wasn't much thought as 3 songs and moments in time instantly popped into my head. But honourable mentions have to go to; Coldplay - Yellow, Snow Patrol - Run and Denis Ferrer - Hey Hey, all of which bring back certain moments in time. But here are my choices..................
Song 1
Man With The Red Face - Mark Knight & Funkagenda
Ok, now picture the scene, 20 something lad working in his 2nd Summer in Ibiza. 12/15hr shifts, ONE DAY OFF A MONTH! and not a lot of going out. Now what I will say is that you were allowed to drink while you were working AND we did usually finish at a decent time so that you could go out and catch the last few hours in a club if you wanted to, plus it was a load of fun. Also at this time Ibiza had just got rid of the 24hr parties and everywhere had to shut by 6am. So someone had a great idea of hosting a boat party that started at 5am and by 6am would be out at international waters so that the rules did not apply. GREAT IDEA! So usually the bar that I would be working at would shut at 3am giving me 2hrs to make a 10min journey down to the West End Harbour to catch the boat. So I'm working away, drinking away, having shots a plenty.... However I decide that on this night I need to get really loaded and have a bottle of wine on top of everything else that I was drinking, also for reasons only the hospitality gods know of, this turned into our busiest night of the summer so far! 4am and I'm still working! Now I'm starting to panic.... Eventually managed to get the bar closed by 4:30am and now I'm in a taxi heading to the harbour. 4:45am and I'm boarding the boat, happy days! Now use your imagination again, have you seen Inbetweeners the movie? When they all go on the boat party, well this was exactly like that. All workers finishing shift, and tourists still wanting to party, DJ on the top deck banging out the tunes. It was class! However now that I'm not working and the brain doesn't really have to function anymore, the bottle of wine starts to kick in and surplus Jager that I have been drinking. We get out to see and the sun rise starts appearing, the boat stops and everyone's up on the top deck..... All of a sudden this chick appears with a Saxophone and the DJ puts on Man With A Red Face , the stunner with the sax is playing along and the sun is rising, everyone was up arms in the air just dancing along. Now I want to say the Sax player was Lovely Laura, but at that time I couldn't have even told you my own name. But that moment, with that song playing, with the sun rising, and the sax playing was pure Ibiza. It's everything that Ibiza for me was meant to be. Every time I hear that song, it always takes me back to that moment. The boat landed back at San Ann at 11am, I crawled off that boat and then had THE worst hangover of my life. But was all worth it.
Song 2
Adagio For Strings - Tiesto
This 2nd choice was a hard one because it was between this or Scooter - Logical Song. Before I was heading around working in Ibiza and Italy, my group of friends and I would have lads holidays every Summer. Malia, Benidorm, Napa, Magaluf, just some of the places we went to (often more than once). But on this particular holiday we were in Magaluf. 15 19/20yr olds. They had (or still might have ) a club called BCM, and to be fair to it, it was a fairly decent club at the time. But the legend that is Judge Jules was playing and away we went. 30 euros in and all you can drink! The cheapest rankest spirits ever but just like ronseal did exactly what it said on the tin! So what I remember of this is that I was on the podium in this club (yep I said podium ) and this song came on, and it could have been possibly the first time I had heard it (wasn't that big into music back then). The green lasers, the euphoric atmosphere, everyone arms up....... then the beat drops when the 'strings' have had their solo... BOOM! Shapes were being thrown that were illegal in most countries. Everyone jumping about like loony tunes! I've heard that song in clubs and on the radio 1000's of times since, and every time it takes me back to then. Later that week I would attend a foam party in BCM with the legend that is Dave Pearce DJ'ing!
Song 3
Bruno Mars - Just the Way You Are
Easy song to choose..... In my 3rd and what turned out to be my final summer working in Ibiza, I met a girl.... That girl was from Northern Ireland and we really hit it off. Later on that Summer it was time for her to go home and I moved into a hotel for my final 4 weeks. On my hotel TV was a load of Spanish channels and MTV! Bruno had just released this song and it was played 5/6 times per hour! But me coming home drunk from work/nights out would put on MTV and hear this song and it would remind me of her. Que the obligatory late night drunken phone call with me attempting to sing the words to her.... This happened a lot and she must of liked my singing as 6 months later I moved to Northern Ireland. 11 years later and we're married with 2 children and I couldn't be happier. This song was also our first dance at our wedding, and I proposed to her while the song was playing in the background. So yeah this song has played a big part in my life.
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