Would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here as young men and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they will never take our stereos? – Braveheart
As students continue to be consigned to house arrest, they’ll only get through this with the staples of Uni, drugs and rock’n’roll.
No sex please, we’re British!
And so in a nod to our future parliamentarians, pioneers and care providers.
Here are some old bangers which got me through my young days.
And the places it took me too.
Tennessee waltz
With WC Handy in Memphis, Tennessee on my Deep South journey
On highway number 19 the people keep the city clean – Tina Turner, Nutbush City Limits
Nutbush City Limits and Tennessee (Ike and Tina Turner): And Nutbush was one to get everyone on their feet in the students’ union (alas no longer there).
I little thought then that I’d be bombing along highway number 19 on my Deep South American Odyssey 30 odd years later… The Promised Land, The story of the Blues and The King of Kings.
Mine’s a 99
Ninety nine dreams I have had, In every one a red balloon, it’s all over and I’m standing pretty, In this dust that was a city – Nena, 99 Ref Balloons
99 Red Balloons and Germany (Nena): You couldn’t qualify as a student when I were a lad if you didn’t march for the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Nuclear Disarmament or to Free Nelson Mandela.
And this anti-Communism clarion call by this German ball of energy played endlessly out of the window of the girls in the next flat.
The wall came down five tears ago and while I have still to make my mark on today’s wall, I have since visited behind the old Curtain.
Ich bin ein Dresdener
To see the revival of Dresden, the Venice of the Elbe, and learn about the Prague Spring and a nuclear bunker.
Mandela days
Are you so blind that you cannot see? Are you so deaf that you cannot hear his plea? Free Nelson Mandela, I’m begging you, Free Nelson Mandela – The Specials
Nelson Mandela and South Africa: And, no, Free Nelson Mandela wouldn’t be one for the dance floor although maybe we pogoed to it.
It really came into its own on protest marches, demonstrations and the Free Nelson Mandela concert at Wembley.
Where me and my old pal from Cardiff student days clung onto our old undergrad days for just one more summer.
And while I never got to meet The Great Man I did get out to his home province of the Eastern Cape in South Africa.
And stood in his Voting Line.
So, for every student in the land, turn your boom boxes up loud and channel your Labi Siffre…
Your light will shine so brightly it will blind them.
Tell me what your University bangers and we’ll share
