Talk about your Big Bangs!

We have our new car and it's completely awesome. I love it, even though it guzzles petrol like nobody's business. It's just brilliant. I say new, in the sense that it's new to us. It obviously is not brand new, because we are not psychopaths or idiots and were not about to fork out many tens thousands of pounds for a brand new car, that would lose twenty percent of its value the minute you shake the slimy salesman's hand. So the car is used. And it's old enough that it came with a tape deck. It surprised me that so many cars came with tape deck as standard, well into the mid -noughties. Even the little work-house Focus came with a tape deck, and Mr Bunny bought that in 2006.

At first that really irritated me. I just thought the previous owner must have been one lazy bitch, if she couldn't even be bothered to install a proper stereo, Merc or not. But then I cursed my own folly and became v happy. You see, back in the day I was a most prolific maker of tapes. I remember making my first tape when I was about nine or ten. I lay on the floor, next to my parents' bed (which is where the unit was that they kept the radio on in our old house) and would wait for a song to come on and hope that the bloody DJ wouldn't ruin it by blabbing during the intro or just as it was ending. The first song I remember recording was a song called Fallen, by Lauren Wood. I don't know why I recorded that song, but I remember I liked it a whole lot. Of course there were other songs on this tape, but this is the one I remember most. In any event, and so it began.

I'd guess that over the course of my tape-making career, I've made close to a hundred tapes. Of course when tapes began to become obseolete, I moved on to CDs. This wasn't the same, since it required a lot less skill than pressing pause at precisely right moment. I could look at a tape and know exactly how much space was left and know exactly which song I could use to fill it...if there was room for a song at all. However, I became a master of mixing different types of songs. And please note, when I say mixing, I do not mean in the way a DJ would do. I'd just mix genres, speeds, artistes. Or I'd mix songs from one artists many albums. My favourite of these was my MJ mixes. This was when I truly flourished as a tape-maestro, and it also helped me get a new walkman quickly, since I would insist on my tapes being played in the car on any journey. Things came to a head in 1997, when we went to St Thomas on holiday, and my dad finally snapped and bought me a walkman so he wouldn't be subjected to constatnt replays of Human Nature and Don't Stop Til You Get Enough. It was around then that I also received my Jackson 5 Anthology, so I Want You Back, Dancing Machine, People Make the World Go 'Round and Can I See You (In the Morning) got thrown into the mix. Things got even worse (from their point of view) when I discovered that you could buy 120 minute tapes. Until then, I'd been stuck with lame 60 minute ones. But to be able to DOUBLE the pleasure and thus double the fun? Oh me, oh my! Anyway, my tapes became legendary as did my CDs. Friends would ask me to make them tapes and CDs for them to play at home or in their cars or whatever. The modern-day equivalent of this is the iPod playlist. And I am also a master at that. I have a playlist just for parties at the Manor, that ALWAYS goes down a treat.

But I digress. So this car has a tape deck. At first I thought "Hmmm. I think I'll just play my Adrian Mole" but in rooting around in the loft for those well-worn tapes, I stumbled across a tape rack. I pulled out a couple tapes- a soca mix from 1999- that I bought either on Independence Sq or in the Croissee-, and a greyish, brownish tape with no label. I'd been playing Adrian Mole for at least a couple journeys, and yesterday while I was on my way to the supermarket, it finally finished. Luckily, I'd put the grey tape into my cardie pocket, so I popped it in and off we went.

IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!!!! Side A was a Cranberries session, with all my favourites- Ode to My Family, Empty, Daffodil Lament, Dreams, Linger, Not Sorry, Put Me Down. Side B, however was a complete and total revelation. Songs I hadn't even thought about in about ten years; Big Bang Baby, by the Stone Temple Pilots, All Mixed Up by 311, Swallowed by Bush and even a couple tracks by No Doubt (but my current aversion to Ms Stefani forbade me from listening to them).

Hearing Big Bang Baby took me right back to driving around in my mom's car, just after I got my licence. Some of my happiest driving experiences have been when I've been on my own, and am not hampered by the tastes of others. My friends would never have let it rest, if I'd popped on a bit of STP while they were in the car. But I digress. That opening little guitar riff just brough it all flooding back- the cheesy video, Scott Weiland obviously smacked out of his mind, me dancing around my room singing "Life is for freeeeee! Nothing's for freeeeeeeee. Take it away booooys!" I was at some traffic lights and I couldn't help myself. I got so into it, the woman in the car next to me looked, smiled and gave me the thumbs up. The woman in the car on the opposite side of the road, waved. Meh. Whatevs.

But nothing compared to the track that followed- Naked Eye by Luscious Jackson. I had TOTALLY forgotten about them as a group, which I feel thoroughly ashamed of now. I forget exactly which year it was I fell in love with them, but I remember it was the year I worked for Claudia during the July/August holidays. I say worked, but all I really did was try on clothes and sit in the back, trying to figure out her ancient computer. I'd grown weary of hearing Enya's Paint the Sky With Stars album, so suggested to Natasha that we play something cool. Everyone loved it, and Naked Eye could probably be heard throughout Colsort Mall. I remember I loved that entire, freaking album. EVERY SONG was just brilliant. I played it at home, I played it in the car (of course I made a tape of it) and when I finally got an adapter for my discman, it was on continuous loop whenever I was allowed to drive somewhere.

So the tape was rewound and the little machiney-type opening riff played at full volume. And I was the happiest I'd been in a few days.

This then made me wonder about all the other tapes I'm sure I had lurking around somewhere. So today I went out into the shed and had a root through the boxes out there, and goodness gracious me! The secrets they unfurled! I found tapes labelled "Bunny, Spain, October 15 2001" or "Bunny, Favourites, Spain, 2001" and "Bunny, Favourites, England." Who knew my anal labelling would come in so handy, ten years later, eh? Some of the tapes had no label, and a couple had labels that had been smeared with oil or something greasy, so the writing had faded. But I managed to make out one of them, and it said simply "Rock no. 2" And you know what? I know that once I put it on, I'll remember exactly how and when I made it.

All I need now is a road trip. Happy days.