Yep! It’s official! My most played artist of 2023 was…no surprises here really if you’ve been taking note of the content on my blog for the past several months…. Mr Hamish Hawk! Well…who’d have thunk it? Top track of his for me was seemingly Bridget St John.
It reveals a changing of the tide. For many years Simple Minds would be WAAAY OUT on top and my top track would be Boys From Brazil. But I guess in the end we all move on, right?
It makes it sound as if I don’t love them anymore. But I think it would be fairer to say that I’ve…calmed. In some ways it feels like a mourning and I have found myself recently having the very strong desire to go back and relive the past nine years of my fandom because those early years were SSSOOOO exciting. My discovery of their back catalogue, the gigs, the interactions with Jim – they were so, so precious to me. All of that was just such a wonderful thing. If I continue writing like this, I’ll get maudlin and will actually start crying. I’ve been in a much better state of mind of late and haven’t cried for a while. I’d like to remain in my stronger state, so let’s get off the nostalgia wheel.
As I’ve hinted at recently, Simple Minds will still be featuring in my life strongly for a time yet. I’m finally at peace with where I am in relation to my existence as a Simple Minds fan. Time changes, things change, people move on. When it’s very obvious to you that the person you held in so much esteem has moved on and you should too but you can’t let go and make yourself sick by trying to hold on to what is, for them, no longer there and hasn’t been there for some time, if it ever was in the same way as it was for you…something has to give. I just had to dust myself off. Move on while trying to keep my head held high. I failed SPECTACULARLY for a while there.
Anyway, this has progressed into something else and I have digressed somewhat! As I say, the Minds are still at number two on the Spotify Wrapped and they will be featuring heavily in my life at least for the next 12 months. As an exercise in how many of you read my blog posts, I have an AMAZING project that I am undertaking in the New Year that will be all about SM. That’s about all I can say for now on that.
I also hope to have something exciting coming up in relation to Hamish Hawk as well. In the meantime, news was shared on Hamish’s social media yesterday that his gig at the Barrowland Ballroom in February has now SOLD OUT. And as continuation of these acts being my top two, the only gigs on my calendar for next year are Hamish and Simple Minds – I am a poor student now.
