Today's Memory Tape comes from Tommy Thompson who writes...
"…Probably around 1988- 89, I had just started work at a clothing company in Leeds. There was a girl there who immediately caught my eye, not in 'that' way, just her dress sense and style was something I'd not really seen before. We soon became quite good friends, spending our dinnertimes talking about music and work gossip etc. We had a lot of musical interests in common, Wedding Present, Cud, indie guitar music in general.
"Now, there was never any 'romantic' involvement between me and this girl, I suppose you can say we were just both in love with the same thing which was our love of music. We went to gigs together and swapped and argued about musical matters for, what now seems in retrospect, a very short while, only about of 4 or 5 months.
"I left the company and before I did she gave me a mix tape of some of her favourite tracks, with no track listing on it, all it said, in a 60's style, typical of her taste were the words: 'Plastic Miss Emmy Bell'.
The tracks on there were all unfamiliar to me apart from a few, but I loved that tape, even though I had no idea who they were by.
"Anyway, years after I had even forgotten I still owned the tape, while having a clearing out my girlfriend of the time found the tape, so we had a listen to it and it soon became 'our favourite tape'. We were travelling around in our bus that summer and it was always in the tape player.
"What with years and years of constant playing the condition of the original tape became 'critical', so we put it away to preserve it. That was 18 years ago and that very same girlfriend is now my wife, we have been happily married for 16 years now and a couple of years ago, mainly thanks to the internet, I have managed to find out the name of about half of the original songs. I purchased the tracks online and we now have a shiny CD of our favourite songs from the tape, with just the words 'Plastic Miss Emmy Bell'.
"So Nemone, please thank plastic Miss Emmy Bell, for not only the brilliant choice of songs, but the hours and hours and hours of happy memories this tape has provided for me and my wife over the years. Although mine and Emmy Bells friendship was only short in person, it still endures thanks to our initial love of music.
"Some of the tracks I suppose I'll never find out the names of, but here is a list of the tracks on our CD now..."
The tracklisting (so far...) is:
The Barracudas - Summer Fun
Buffalo Springfield - Mr Soul
The Vaselines - Jesus Don't Want Me for a Sunbeam
TV Personalities - The Boy in the Paisley Shirt
Camper Van Beethoven - Where the Hell is Bill
Francoise Hardy - Catch a Falling Star
The Association - Windy
The Seekers - Georgy Girl
Lovin Spoonful - You Didn't Have to be so Nice
The Rutles - With a Girl Like You
Shangri-Las - Give Him a Great Big Kiss
Cud - Lola
The Pastels - Holy Moly
Hurrah! - The Sun Shines Here
Hey you! Yeah you, send in your Memory Tape too: lauren.6music@bbc.co.uk
