My Desert Island Discs 

Richard over at Amused and Bemused nominated me to do a post on desert island discs. You can see his list here 

This isn’t my “normal” blog style and I know my last few posts have all been lists of some sort- and I will get back to the family posts soon, I promise! 

For those of you that don’t listen to radio 4, the idea is to pretend that you are a castaway on a desert island, and choose 8 recordings (not always songs) a Book and a luxury item to take with you on the island.

Here is my list of 10 things that I would take (or would hopefully save me from going mad and feeding myself to the Sharks) 

Once I’m bored of the crashing waves I will need my own crashing mix of James Hetfield vocals and Lars Ulrich energy to see me through so my first choice is;

1) Nothing Else Matters – Metallica. 

Now there was always going to be a Metallica song in this. To some that may seem cliché or like I’m “trying” to be cool (-come on Zoe, you’re a well spoken public school girl, you cannot possibly listen to that stuff. ) but my first ever memories of travelling to North wales in the car with dad, we would pop a cassette in the dashboard and spend the journey belting out Metallica Songs as loud as my little lungs could take, with the occasional moment shouting “don’t drum daddy-drive” as dad tapped the beat on the steering wheel. This is also the song I walked down the aisle to, played live by a string quartet. The quartet version is in this video

Wedding video

2 Skunk Anansie- Brazen (Weep)

Because where better to belt out those kind of vocals when there’s only wildlife for neighbours. I could hit those notes once upon a time when I was a choir girl. You could call this my teenage angst song. I used to play it whenever I was angry. 

Weep

3) Natalie Imbruglia-Torn 

Because. Dad. He introduced me to Karaoke for the deaf by David Armand (Johan Lippowitz) and the song has stuck since. If Dad hadn’t sadly passed away just a few weeks beforehand, he and I would have totally mimed the song with all the Karaoke actions as our Daddy-daughter dance. (and we would have got the guitar moves the correct way!) 

Torn

4) Elbow- grounds for divorce. 

I remember the first time I heard this, I was having a nightmare of a time in Scotland half trapped by a blizzard and not a fucking clue where I was going thanks to multiple road closures. It was on a CD I’d just bought and I turned it up loud and hit repeat. It got me through one of the most terrifying drives I’ve ever done. I was off treacherous Scottish roads and way over the chap summit before I turned it off. I’m not going to be technical in my description because let’s face it, I’m partially deaf and couldn’t tell you the Treble from the Bass sometimes, but the way it sounds just makes me feel happy. 

Grounds for Divorce 

5) Baby I’m yours -Arctic Monkeys 

This was our first dance song. It is one I hum/ sing to the children often. It would remind me of home and happiness and love. I have most of the A.M albums and one has been in the car CD changer for nearly 2 years because I always go back to artic Monkeys. I also played them a lot during both pregnancies and the kids always seem to calm down when I play their songs. 

Baby I’m Yours

Not a song, but recordings are allowed so my next choice would be; 

6) The complete radio series of Hitch Hikers guide to The galaxy. 

The story of the Hapless Arthur Dent, the sound effects and the voices are soothing. I also hear a new joke every time is listen to it. 

7) Bush – Straight no chaser.

This song I played a lot after my brain tumour diagnosis. The line “Drink life as it comes, straight no chaser” helped me somehow. It was like my favourite phrase “this too shall pass” but in song format. I think if you find yourself stuck on an island (which a brain tumour diagnosis can feel a bit like that I suppose- it can be very lonely) it all becomes about surviving- and once you’ve survived, you keep on living. 

Straight No Chaser

8) Rammstein- Zwitter.

 I used to do a lot of running in my teens. This song would always give me that fresh burst of energy to get those final few k’s nailed. 

Zwitter

 Book; 

This is a hard one. I can’t think of many books that I’ve read more than once, for the exception maybe of “Feu De Glace” the French translation of the Nicci French bestseller- Killing me softly. I’d have to take a French book purely because all my music choices are in English. (Or German!) 

Luxury item: 

Well. This is probably bending the rules somewhat. My luxury item would actually be another human. That human would be my husband, Michael. Let’s face it. I’d be pretty lost without him, and although he won’t thank me for the music choices (we have very different tastes in music!) I’m pretty sure we could turn it in to a pretty awesome existence even if we do end up with sand in all the wrong places. 
Other than my Husband Michael (because you will see just how different our tastes are!) I’m not going to nominate anyone to carry this on, as I understand it doesn’t fit with everyone’s blog style, but please see this as an open invitation to create your own post (and link back to me pretty please!) or pop your selection in the comments 🙂 

Right. I’m off to hunt coconuts. (Or whatever else you do in a Desert island) – translation. Time for the Weekly food shop! 
Zx