Things that make you go Mmm!

I think there's something called a Magical Musical Moment. A Mmm.


It's not an official term. I made it up. You might call it something different, or you might not even have given yours a name. But, officially named or not, I reckon that a 'Mmm' is that one single moment in your life when you realise how special music is. When you suddenly witness the power of music. POW! You’re hooked. You’re in. Like Flynn. Or someone else.

Mine was at exactly 6.41pm on July 13th, 1985. Live Aid.

I’d liked music well before that. Me and my old schoolmate Chris were Mods in school. Back in the day we both wore green army parkas with woolly lining and a fish-tail at the back. Our parka's had the iconic red, white and blue target painted on them, and we would sit for ages painting 'The Jam' and 'The Who' all over them. Then, when the paint had dried, we pinned loads of badges down the front. 

We thought we were the bee’s knees. The bee’s entire legs. We were too cool for school. Well, too cool to go to school on days when we were kind of required to be there.

I loved The Who, The Jam, and the movie Quadrophenia. All I wanted to do was cruise the streets of my hometown on a Lambretta, or perhaps a Vespa, its poorer cousin. And I wanted heaps of mirrors attached to the side. Heaps and heaps. More mirrors than a scooter really needed. That was in the days before scooters became hip. I was 15.

Then one day, when he was out in his Mod gear, my mate Chris got badly beaten by a bunch of body-boppers. Being a Mod didn’t appeal to either of us after that. Mod music was great, but it wasn't worth a bloody nose from a gang of blip-blip lovers in possession of a piece of lino and a ghetto-blaster. We took our parkas off ... and moved on up.  

& then I went off to University and without any warning the whole 'Madchester' thing happened. Just like that.


Manchester. Madchester. It was crazy.

For about five years Manchester was - music-wise - the coolest place in the entire world. Seattle’s grunge moment would come & Liverpool's had long since been and gone. The early 90's was Manchester’s turn. Madchester. You really had to be there. Or better still, be from there. And I was. Yes!! As the famous T-shirt from 1992 rightly pointed out '...And on the sixth day God created Manchester.' For that short time it felt like he had.

The Smiths, The Stone Roses, The Happy Mondays and, of course, the one and only, the great, the greatest, the quintessentially 'Manchester', Joy Division (who would later become New Order). They were the bands I listened to, watched live and grew up with. Oasis think they were the best thing that ever came out of Manchester, but the truth is that they were the just the encore. (Don't tell the Gallagher brothers I said that).

So, music has always been there for me. I’m sure that many of us could put a soundtrack together for our lives (there’s probably an App that does it for you in 30-seconds flat) ... our first kiss, our first love, our first broken heart, our first drink, our first 'one-too-many' drinks. I'll let you into a secret ... I can’t hear George Michael’s Careless Whisper without drifting back to one of those 'firsts' - and no, it wasn’t my first drink, that was Duran Duran's Rio.

But my Magical Music Moment - my Mmm! - the moment that the penny dropped, when it all suddenly made sense, when I realised the beauty, the power, the...well...the everything, was Live Aid. Not the whole thing. It went on for days - well it felt like it anyway. It kind of did. Live Aid started in London at Wembley Stadium. There were 72000 people there. But it also took place simultaneously in Philiadelphia in front of 100,000 people, as well as at venues in Germany, Australia and a host of other places. (Phil Collins famously played in London, and then hopped on Concorde to Philly to play there too. That was when Concorde was still flying ... and Phil C was still fairly mobile). 

The gig


Status Quo opened Live Aid at 12.02pm. They did 'Rocking all Over the World'. Say what you like about Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, but opening Live Aid with that song was perfect. 


Then The Style Council did their thang (The Jam had split-up two years before, and Paul Weller had formed TSC. He still walked on water in my book. My parka was still hanging in my wardrobe).

& then at exactly 6.41pm my life changed. 


Not outwardly. It wasn’t a religious experience or anything like that. But something happened and it made a difference. It mattered. Inside. In my head. 


Freddie Mercury happened. 

I wasn’t a huge Queen fan. I’m still not to be honest. I don’t mind some of their stuff. I own a few albums - mainly Best Of’s - and I listen to a few songs here and there. A Winter’s Tale is a really nice Xmas song.

But on July 13th 1985 at 6.41pm Freddie Mercury sang 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in front of 70-odd thousand people at Wembley Stadium and I was totally, completely, and utterly blown away. Musically-speaking It was the best thing I had ever seen ... It was magical. It was a Kind of Magic! 

It was my own personal magical music moment. My Mmm!

In that one single moment, that one song, that one performance - all 7 minutes of it - I understood the power of music. Not in a political sense - although I suppose Live Aid did have a huge impact politically. It was more the power of music to have an impact. I can’t even say exactly what the impact on me really was. It doesn’t matter. It just hit me. Like a brick. And things were different afterwards. The world - my own little world - had tilted a little on its axis.

Freddie Mercury died of an HIV-related illness (AIDS) on 24th November 1991. 


I feel the same way about Freddie Mercury dying as some people feel about Elvis or John Lennon or Kurt Cobain or Michael Hutchence. You didn’t need to be a Lennon fan, or even a fan of The Beatles, to know - instinctively - that when John Lennon was killed it was a really sad day. Imagine what might have been. Imagine what he might have written, how he might have performed. After 8th December 1980. Imagine. 

I think the same thing about Freddie Mercury. All from that one very special seven-minute moment at Live Aid

If you’ve never seen it, here’s a link to my Mmm! Even now It sends shivers down my spine like only a good 'Mmm' can. It goes on a bit. It’s a real pity that Freddie didn’t 'go on' just a little bit longer. 


I feel privileged to have seen him strut his stuff on stage at Wembley. RIP Freddie. 

I wonder what your own personal Mmm! is?

have a super sunday

pip pip