Today's Memory Tape comes from Nina McNair, who's sharing a tape all about her best friend Denise. They met, they partied, they grew up, they're the best of friends. Remember, you can send in your story and tracklist anytime to: lauren.6music@bbc.co.uk. And here's Nina to tell us all about the tape, and her friend:
"It was my great friend Denise's Hen Do (I am one of the Bridesmaids) on 4th July. Denise used to make us proper Mix tapes called ‘Nice Tracks’ that we used to play whilst driving back from clubbing with chilled out tunes from Groove Armada & Zero 7 and Massive Attack.
I first met Denise about 1993 when I was a grungy 17 year old student wearing second jeans and tie dye, listening to a lot of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. She was a super glam 20 year old with a great job and amazing clothes which she got from Hyper Hyper in Kensington. She was friends with my first boyfriend and a big gang of us would go clubbing together to Club UK & Satellite Club in Vauxhall. Unexpectedly, we became great friends and started going to girls only club nights to places like Malibu Staceys at Hanover Grand and Nicky Holloway’s club (our fave) Velvet Underground in Soho. We had a shared love of getting glammed up, dancing all night and making new friends. As you did! The relationship with the fella fizzled out but I am still great friends with Denise and – our other friend – Laura 20 years on.
I picked the Florence song as we saw her at the first Camp Bestival in Dorset, she was just starting out and we loved seeing her crazy stage antics and her vocals were immense. A few years later we saw her at our local venue in Bournemouth and we had the pleasure of bumping into her in the Urban Beach Pub beforehand. She was very sweet and charming to us, slightly inebriated and giggly ladies, and told us to get down there early or we would miss the support act…the XX!
We had an amazing time in Benicassim in 2004 dancing in the Spanish heat to Basement Jaxx and Kasabian ‘til sun rise. We’ve been to countless raves, parties and festivals together, as well as life’s highs and lows. We even had children around the same time, one year apart, and we ended up both living the beach life in Bournemouth with our families. Now we’re a big extended group of party loving friends and this year we are off to Lindos, Rhodes to celebrate the wedding of Denise & Kev.
After 23 years of larging it in Fleet, London, Bournemouth & travelling the world, having several careers and two children, they have decided to finally tie the knot. Laura, myself and our kids are bridesmaids & page boys. My husband Flash is best man and lots of our closest friends are coming out to Rhodes to join the celebrations. This mix tape is dedicated to Denise the gorgeous bride and all the happy, crazy, fun-filled memories we've had over the years.
She has been a fantastic friend and I want to wish them loads of love & laughter for years to come.
And you can check out the full tracklisting on Spotify.
Much love
Nina x"
