Lopez Blogs

My journey through the songs that, for whatever reason good or bad, remind me of past holidays, continues.

1996 - Ostend. For some reason, I didn't have a 'holiday song' for this springtime visit to Ostend, however I was listening to a lot of Marco Borsato at the time so possibly "Dromen Zijn Bedrog", three minutes of pure Dutch Edam if ever there was. Also around that time in the days before Sky Digital and you could get Dutch TV, there was the "Rabo Top 40" which in April 1996 featured "Ridin'" by Doop, a song so spectacular and unforgettable that I was on a mission to buy it. Flemish-speaking Belgium however was a Doop-free zone. Doop, if you recall, was a one-hit wonder in the UK with the very silly "Doop" but that was nothing compared to "Ridin'", lyrically and musically a true classic. The video is one of the greatest ever made.

1996 - Gothenburg. Ah, Sweden. Surely there would be lots of Swedish music on the radio? Um...no. 11 years ago, Swedish radio was in denial that there was actually any Swedish music. Don't think Svenska Favoriter existed back in the day, or I would have been listening to it. So anyway the most played song on the radio, during that holiday....."Champagne Supernova" by a little-known Swedish combo called Oasis. Hm.

1997 - Toronto. Now this was a strange one as it was possibly the only time I didn't take a radio with me, and had to rely on what was played on the music channels and in shops. Maybe it was just as well, as I would have been even more sickened than I already was by Elton John's gooey remake of "Candle In The Wind", three weeks after Diana's death of course.

1997 - Ostend. With a jaunt over the border to the Calais hypermarket. This holiday being notable for buying Eros Ramazzotti's Greatest Hits and Mylene Farmer's "Live at Bercy". It was one of those occasions where a song hits Europe first and then the UK later. Run DMC's "It's Like That" was a hit in Belgium long before it reached the UK charts and therefore got lots of airplay and it always reminds me of that holiday.

Coming soon: The French years, and .... Norway!