Disko Kids Mixtape Christina Pickworth @thismamadoes

This week the lovely Christina who runs @thismamadoes picks her 10 tracks that she would put on her Mixtape.

What was the first record / CD you ever bought?

I have to confess I have no idea what the first one I ever actually bought myself was - I was a late starter when it came to being a music fan so this wasn’t really a thing for me! But definitely the first two albums on my Christmas list were Kylie Minogue ‘Kylie’ and Jason Donovan ‘Ten Good Reasons’. My kids have already bought theirs - the GHOSTBUSTERS theme on vinyl! Their favourite songs are both the Beatles though - my little boy’s is Happiness is a warm gun, and my little girl’s is Blackbird, and they both love My Guitar Gently Weeps.

What was the first gig you went to?

I think it was probably a band playing at The Penny Theatre in Canterbury - although we didn’t really go for the band, it was just a bar where we thought we would get served! I remember it being very busy and very sweaty. It was also where I bought my first alcoholic drink in bar - a bacardi and coke! I was 16.

Party out or Kitchen Disco?

I think parties are more about the people than the place - give me the good people and I’ll party wherever we are!

What tracks would you put on your mixtape & why.

Track 1 A-Ha - The Sun Always Shines on TV

I love how this song is melancholy and uplifting all at once. 80s music is my go-to and this one never fails to cheer me up.

Track 2 - Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World

This song is such a pick-me-up, it’s the song I play if I need to get a grip and seize the day!

Track 3 - Elbow - One Day Like This

This was always me and my husband Bingle’s song, right from when we got together. It was our first dance, and it just feels like home.

Track 4 - Oasis - Talk Tonight

If there’s a song that is really about one person, one moment, for me it’s this one. We were on honeymoon in Thailand and went to an open mic night, with some fellow honeymooners we’d made friends with, one of whom sadly died just a couple of years later. Suddenly there was a power cut so the musicians played a few things acoustically. I stitched Bingle up because I said he wanted to sing - so they gave him a guitar and he couldn’t really say no. He played and sang this to everyone by candlelight, and I was so proud of him. This song will always remind me of him and of that night. Of how you have to take the chances when you get them, and of how when I fell deeply into depression he was there to catch me.

Track 5 - Ben Folds - Still Fighting It

When we were doing NCT, one week we had to bring something to show how we felt about impending parenthood. Bingle brought this song. It’s such a beautiful song about the moments you have with your child - mundane but momentous, the journey you go on, all the while never really growing up yourself. It’s about the prospect of perhaps not really understanding one another until they are where you are, but hoping there will be the day that you do. This line has always really stuck with me - “you’re so much like me, I’m sorry”.

Track 6 - The Fray - How to Save a Life

I listened to this song on repeat when I was pregnant with my little boy. After he was born even from being really small he always recognised it, and when he could talk and he heard it he would always run to me and say “Mummy it’s our song” - before even I could tell him that it was. I don’t really know why I loved it so much before, but it’ll be burned on my heart forever now, because of him.

Track 7 - Kacey Musgraves - Silver Lining

I think she’s such a brilliant lyricist. I’ve found the last few years really hard, and this song always gives me hope - “If you wanna fill your bottle up with lightning, You’re gonna have to stand in the rain”.

Track 8 - The Divine Comedy - Our Mutual Friend

The most recent of the songs on my list (not to the world, but to me!). I work in film & TV and, alongside THIS MAMA DOES, my work is all about storytelling. This song is the perfect story within a song, about lost loves and snogs at parties! And it sounds amazing - I could listen to it over and over.

Track 9 - The Killers - Human

this is one of those songs that clears my head, makes me smile and just makes me want to dance. It’s always one of the first ones on any playlist.

Track 10 - Oasis - Wonderwall -

This song was on my mix-tape for the car, when I was driving to and from my a-levels. This is the song that makes me feel young, and reminds me of how it feels to be young - to feel like anything is possible. It feeds my soul.