SUMMERS AT 88MPH
KT Tunstall - Universe & U
This song has nothing to do with a broken heart, depression or falling hopelessly in love. The memories that it evokes are not sparked by the lyrics. In truth, if I am going to be completely honest, I’m not even sure that it is this song that was playing at the particular time that I’m going to recount for your reading pleasure.
But it was most definitely KT Tunstall.
It was most definitely her voice that I heard whilst standing outside a burger van one morning last July. This particular burger van, along with others of its ilk selling ridiculously overpriced food to hungry festival-goers, stood on the frankly enormous field of Warwick School; in, (funnily enough) Warwick. My second folk weekend at Warwick had come to an end that morning, and it was grey-skied and raining. A family was huddled beneath the white tarpaulin in the centre of the food stands. Things were winding down; motor homes were making their way towards the exit gate, tents were disappearing into bags and boots of cars. It was that sad time that comes at the end of any festival; the temporary and vibrant city that fills a field slowly but surely dies away. The only tell-tale reminders are the yellowing patches of grass, sad little squares dotted around the campsite that emerge as tents are packed up and shoved into storage.
My first camping experience came at the age of 17. Anyone who knows me well knows how much camping and festivals mean to me. Without wishing to sound melodramatic, my life changed during the summer of 2006, when I became a volunteer steward at the local Folk Week festival. And while the Warwick burger van memory awakened by K.T. Tunstall’s soft Scottish tones was not epiphanic, the experience that preceded it by five summers certainly was.
I still find it remarkable how disarming songs can be. An opening chord, a flicker of guitar strings, a particular lyric, and we’re held captive by our hearts and minds. Even the high-pitched whine of a zip takes me back to rain-spattered tents and sleeping next to my then beloved on uncomfortable ground. The lurch in my chest when I realised the last morning had come and everyone would be packing up and saying goodbye. Bleary eyed morning bellows as each of us poked our head out of our little canvas caves into sun, or more often, summer rain.
Tunstall’s ‘Universe and U’ (if it was indeed that track that I heard as a dark-haired woman handed me a tea and bacon butty) is just one of many songs that would feature on the soundtracks of my life. I say soundtracks, because I think there would be a different one for different phases of my life. For example:
- University (this would be one hell of a mix tape!)
- Gap Year
- Camping Adventures
- {insert name of ex-boyfriend here}
You get the picture. And that’s the wonderful thing. Songs gingerly creep or boisterously blast their way out of our laptop/iPod/CD player and your mind hurtles you back days, months, years. It’s the closest thing to time-travel that we have. God help us if we ever lose it.
Amy Claire Barnes
http://thursdayschild88.tumblr.com
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