Considering I’ve spent over half my life with my Queenie it figures that she’s going rock up on my 50 Tunes For 50 Years a fair few times. We’ve shared way too many stacks of speakers, amps and record players for her not too. But when you consider our track record one would think that the tune that soundtracked the beginning of my greatest love affair would be the saucy four-to-the-floor and cowbell driven wonders of the disco. And while she adhered to the seduction stereotypes that first date back in 1992 with plenty of Marvin Gaye (I knew I was in trouble from the first beat of Let’s Get It On) it is The Breeders and their Last Splash that was our first vinyl love. Late night sessions that I never wanted to end accompanied by the Pixie fuelled rock of The Breeders’ sisters Kim and Kelley. Sisters that meant double trouble for our neighbours as Queenie and I brought the, ahem, roof down night after night at Lion Mews.

Given to me on a bootlegged cassette (thanks Pete) the day I moved to Portslade, my belongings piled into in a dodgy Renault, it was soon so worn it had that telltale wobble from the rewinds, only to be replaced by vinyl that also quickly developed had its own well-worn crackles and pops. Last Splash was a longplayer as addictive as this new woman in my life and just like with the 33” I couldn’t resist my Josephine.

Fast forward (with a pencil obviously) to 2019 and Cannonball still fires off the goosebumps, the butterfly belly and the filthy grins. Just like she does. And with over 27 years worth of tunes that continue to soundtrack our lives, I’m already getting the feeling I’m going need more than fifty to ever encompass the sound wonder she has brought to my days. Regardless of the darkness that often fills this oddly wired Aspie brain, I’ll always know one thing. I’ll always want to be because of who she made me be. Because of the girl, I fell in love with courtesy of a Cannonball.