What’s your favourite ever year?

[TheJabbaWookie]

I guess most people on here will think back to something Star Wars related and how it changed their life, but for me it was the 1991/92 school year and at the heart of it all was music. Well, it might not be my favourite ever year but it's my most definitive year... It was the year I changed immeasurably... I left popular music culture behind and became an indie grunge kid at heart.

And it all started when I heard Smells Like Teen Spirt by Nirvana for the first time. It blew my mind. I'd never heard anything like it. It really was a defining anthem for teenagers of the time. I started wearing band T-shirt's, buying records, going to gigs and drinking. I found a whole new music scene and got a whole new friend network (and one that I've kept for life).

We'd go to the only offy that would serve us and buy K cider, before going on to the only place in Colchester that would serve baby faced 15 year olds, a place called the Colchester Town House. There was a rivalry between the 4th years and the 5th years and that spilled over into the two main bands we'd go to watch... Balloon Sandwich (4th years) and Jam Powered Frog (5th years). I remember fondly one massively inspired cover by Balloon Sandwich of Kill Your Television by Ned's Atomic Dustbin.

1991 has some great defining albums... one's that I still listen to avidly even today. Nevermind by Nirvana, The Black Album by Metallica, Alive by Pearl Jam, Blood Sugar Sex Magik by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gish by the Smashing Pumpkins to name but a few. Not to mention alternative dance albums by The KLF, Massive Attack and Orbital.

It was also a great year for movies too for my 15 year old self with Terminator 2, Silence of the Lambs, Point Break and Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey.

Of course there's always a downside and that came when Everything I do by Bryan Adams remained at number 1 in the charts for 14 weeks, but then hell you can't have it all.

What about you chaps? What year defined you and why?

 

[theforceuk]

Bloody good question! I will have to think about it though. Many years spring to mind 1984, 1990, 1999, 2000 and both years my children were born. Picking one is hard.

 

[TheJabbaWookie]

Bloody good question! I will have to think about it though. Many years spring to mind 1984, 1990, 1999, 2000 and both years my children were born. Picking one is hard.

Yeah, I went for what I consider is my defining year. The one I think shaped the person I am today, rather than my favourite year. Perhaps my favourite ever year was my first or final year at uni, or maybe 2012 when me and my wife blitzed London before we moved out to the sticks in 2013.

 

[Snaketibe]

It is a good question, but I'm going to struggle to answer it. My life has contained zero 'road to Damascus' moments, and although we all (well, OK most of us) do gradually change at least a little over the years, my fundamental world view and outlook are essentially the same at 47 as they were at 17.

If the question was simply, 'What was your favourite ever year, but not necessarily the one which defined you as a person?' (because of course they aren't necessarily the same thing for many people), then I would probably pick somewhere around the mid-eighties. Yes, I was still at school, and yes that sucked, but I also have some very fond memories of that time. I was growing up, music, film and TV all had fine offerings to be had amongst the inevitable dross, and life seemed full of endless possibilities.

And then reality happened :lol:

 

[theforceuk]

Think I would have to say 2000 is my favourite year to date, spent the year in Australia pretty much doing what I wanted. I remember my first night there not being able to sleep through jet lag and worrying what I was going to do when I got back in a years time!

After that first night I never really looked back, my friend went home after 2 months and I stayed. Ended up having an amazing time and I think it really made me realise that the world was and still is there waiting for you to explore and every day is what you make it.

As for music that year I listened to Eminem's first two albums a lot and The Manic Street Preachers Everything must go. Any songs from those 3 albums transport me back to that year and always will.

Some of the things that happened to me that year, you really can't make up. Good, bad and everything else.

 

[UKS]

1984.

I've heard it said everyone's favourite year is when they are seven.

Not sure about that, but seems about true to me!

 

[TheJabbaWookie]

It is a good question, but I'm going to struggle to answer it. My life has contained zero 'road to Damascus' moments, and although we all (well, OK most of us) do gradually change at least a little over the years, my fundamental world view and outlook are essentially the same at 47 as they were at 17.

If the question was simply, 'What was your favourite ever year, but not necessarily the one which defined you as a person?' (because of course they aren't necessarily the same thing for many people), then I would probably pick somewhere around the mid-eighties. Yes, I was still at school, and yes that sucked, but I also have some very fond memories of that time. I was growing up, music, film and TV all had fine offerings to be had amongst the inevitable dross, and life seemed full of endless possibilities.

And then reality happened :lol:

Absolutely it can be your favourite ever year if you can even remember one Jeremy. :lol:

 

[TheJabbaWookie]

1984.

I've heard it said everyone's favourite year is when they are seven.

Not sure about that, but seems about true to me!

1985 was so much better :wink:
It had Back to the Future and The Goonies for starters 8)

 

[UKS]

84 was ghostbusters and gremlins!

 

[weasel]

1991 has some great defining albums... one's that I still listen to avidly even today. Nevermind by Nirvana, The Black Album by Metallica, Alive by Pearl Jam, Blood Sugar Sex Magik by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gish by the Smashing Pumpkins to name but a few. Not to mention alternative dance albums by The KLF, Massive Attack and Orbital.

Gish?
Siamese Dreams is still the greatest album ever made, and anyone who disagrees gets banned! :lol: . Meloncolie and the infinite sadness is also classic. Gish is ehhh, well, it's an album. Lol

 

[edd_jedi]

Very good and very tough question! Like most I've had some good and some bad years, and many years have some highlights (children being born, getting married etc) but the year that I have the most good memories from and changed my life was 2009. It has nothing to do with music, toys or pop culture of the time.

I had been in a long term relationship (well it felt long at the time, 6 years since I was 21) and was living with my girlfriend in Poole, the town I had grown up in. Towards the end of 2008, I had started hanging out with a girl I used to go to school with, but stupidly kept it a secret from my girlfriend because I knew she wouldn't approve of it. Nothing ever happened with the other girl, we were just friends. On Xmas eve my girlfriend found the text messages on my phone, accused me of cheating (which was rich because she did actually cheat on me a couple of years earlier) and a few days later she moved out of our flat, that was the end of it. I haven't talked to her since, despite her sending me a Facebook message every few years which I always ignore :lol:

Strangely rather than being gutted about it, I felt quite liberated. With hindslight it was very stupid of me not to tell her about this new friendship, but as anybody who knows me would agree I'm very private and often don't even tell my wife things that are going on in my life, it's nothing personal and I'm not hiding anything sinister, it's just how I am. For example, nobody at work has any idea I am in to Star Wars or run a record label, I'm not one of those people that has it all over their desk and talks about it at lunch.

Having been 'tied down' for 6 years, rather than wallow in my own pity I got straight back out there. I moved to London in to a houseshare with four complete strangers (all of them were female which helped.) Without going in to too much detail, over the next year I had the time of my life :lol: it wasn't just the girls but also the excitement of living in London, going to loads of nightclubs, travelling the world with these new friends, having house parties, all the stuff I had missed out on at uni because throughout those years I had a girlfriend.

So it wasn't one particular thing that happened that year, I just remember being very happy throughout it. At the end of 2009 I met my wife who I now have two kids with, so that year really was the start of a new and current chapter. Things could have turned out very differently.

 

[bosk70]

1984.

I've heard it said everyone's favourite year is when they are seven.

Not sure about that, but seems about true to me!

Funny that because 8 was a good time in my childhood memories endless days in the summer of 78 playing with friends in the street and war in the local woods,

but I think the best year was 1991 , bug jam in my 67 bug mixed with rave, bmxing , (Corfu with mates that story would fill a book, nearly drove a mini van of a cliff with all my mates in when a seat belt got wrapped around the back wheel cause they had the sliding doors open :shock these moments leave a mark in your memories (think the ending to the Italian job :lol: ) good times

 

[TheJabbaWookie]

1991 has some great defining albums... one's that I still listen to avidly even today. Nevermind by Nirvana, The Black Album by Metallica, Alive by Pearl Jam, Blood Sugar Sex Magik by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gish by the Smashing Pumpkins to name but a few. Not to mention alternative dance albums by The KLF, Massive Attack and Orbital.

Gish?
Siamese Dreams is still the greatest album ever made, and anyone who disagrees gets banned! :lol: . Meloncolie and the infinite sadness is also classic. Gish is ehhh, well, it's an album. Lol

I never said it topped Siamese Dream just sited it as a great album. Please don't ban me please

 

[TheJabbaWookie]

Very good and very tough question! Like most I've had some good and some bad years, and many years have some highlights (children being born, getting married etc) but the year that I have the most good memories from and changed my life was 2009. It has nothing to do with music, toys or pop culture of the time.

I had been in a long term relationship (well it felt long at the time, 6 years since I was 21) and was living with my girlfriend in Poole, the town I had grown up in. Towards the end of 2008, I had started hanging out with a girl I used to go to school with, but stupidly kept it a secret from my girlfriend because I knew she wouldn't approve of it. Nothing ever happened with the other girl, we were just friends. On Xmas eve my girlfriend found the text messages on my phone, accused me of cheating (which was rich because she did actually cheat on me a couple of years earlier) and a few days later she moved out of our flat, that was the end of it. I haven't talked to her since, despite her sending me a Facebook message every few years which I always ignore :lol:

Strangely rather than being gutted about it, I felt quite liberated. With hindslight it was very stupid of me not to tell her about this new friendship, but as anybody who knows me would agree I'm very private and often don't even tell my wife things that are going on in my life, it's nothing personal and I'm not hiding anything sinister, it's just how I am. For example, nobody at work has any idea I am in to Star Wars or run a record label, I'm not one of those people that has it all over their desk and talks about it at lunch.

Having been 'tied down' for 6 years, rather than wallow in my own pity I got straight back out there. I moved to London in to a houseshare with four complete strangers (all of them were female which helped.) Without going in to too much detail, over the next year I had the time of my life :lol: it wasn't just the girls but also the excitement of living in London, going to loads of nightclubs, travelling the world with these new friends, having house parties, all the stuff I had missed out on at uni because throughout those years I had a girlfriend.

So it wasn't one particular thing that happened that year, I just remember being very happy throughout it. At the end of 2009 I met my wife who I now have two kids with, so that year really was the start of a new and current chapter. Things could have turned out very differently.

Sounds like 2009 was a very good year indeed.

Funnily enough I also met my wife that year so I agree too, though the start of it was also one of the most harrowing times in my life too.

 

[TheJabbaWookie]

1984.

I've heard it said everyone's favourite year is when they are seven.

Not sure about that, but seems about true to me!

Funny that because 8 was a good time in my childhood memories endless days in the summer of 78 playing with friends in the street and war in the local woods,

but I think the best year was 1991 , bug jam in my 67 bug mixed with rave, bmxing , (Corfu with mates that story would fill a book, nearly drove a mini van of a cliff with all my mates in when a seat belt got wrapped around the back wheel cause they had the sliding doors open :shock these moments leave a mark in your memories (think the ending to the Italian job :lol: ) good times

Wow did Corfu in 1994 and Bug Jam in 1996. Quality times. If you were in Kavos did they have Futures nightclub back then?

 

[bosk70]

1984.

I've heard it said everyone's favourite year is when they are seven.

Not sure about that, but seems about true to me!

Funny that because 8 was a good time in my childhood memories endless days in the summer of 78 playing with friends in the street and war in the local woods,

but I think the best year was 1991 , bug jam in my 67 bug mixed with rave, bmxing , (Corfu with mates that story would fill a book, nearly drove a mini van of a cliff with all my mates in when a seat belt got wrapped around the back wheel cause they had the sliding doors open :shock these moments leave a mark in your memories (think the ending to the Italian job :lol: ) good times

Wow did Corfu in 1994 and Bug Jam in 1996. Quality times. If you were in Kavos did they have Futures nightclub back then?

Yes kavos good old mud roads can't remember the club names but looked on google earth a few months ago and its a bit more built up but don't think much has changed in the last 30 years, we had a flood when we were there worst storms since 1945 the hotel manager told us, pool filled with mud and washed most of the beach away where the water washed down the hills out to sea and through our first floor self catering apartments, we were off in the van that day as above and missed the storm and came back to chaos , just like carry on abroad :lol:

 

[Snaketibe]

It is a good question, but I'm going to struggle to answer it. My life has contained zero 'road to Damascus' moments, and although we all (well, OK most of us) do gradually change at least a little over the years, my fundamental world view and outlook are essentially the same at 47 as they were at 17.

If the question was simply, 'What was your favourite ever year, but not necessarily the one which defined you as a person?' (because of course they aren't necessarily the same thing for many people), then I would probably pick somewhere around the mid-eighties. Yes, I was still at school, and yes that sucked, but I also have some very fond memories of that time. I was growing up, music, film and TV all had fine offerings to be had amongst the inevitable dross, and life seemed full of endless possibilities.

And then reality happened :lol:

Absolutely it can be your favourite ever year if you can even remember one Jeremy. :lol:

Oh, I can remember quite a lot ;-)

Although they're not my favourite years overall, 1978-1983 (when I stopped collecting vintage! ) are full of fantastic Star Wars toy memories. I can clearly remember the local toy shop in Ware, Hertfordshire where I bought all the Palitoy playsets brand new, plus most of the first 20 figures (a few came from elsewhere, including Hertford where I saw my first Kenner 20 back and wondered why I had never seen a Dewback and why my Land of the Jawas, Droid Factory and Cantina playsets looked so different from those on the cardback ;-)). I moved away from Ware in 1983 and never set foot in that toy shop again (and it is now long-since defunct), but I can still clearly see the layout in my head and could easily draw it, the way most of the first floor of the mezzanine arrangement inside the shop was one big display customers weren't supposed to access, and instead you had to climb a short dog-leg staircase on the right-hand side as you entered in order to rise about 5 feet to the upper level where all the goodies were (Palitoy playsets, X-Wings and Land Speeders on the top shelf on the left-hand wall as you entered the top level, opposite the cash register and desk, Star Wars figures in front of the desk on the wall to the right, but displayed in a box rather than on pegs)

When I think of my childhood, my first thoughts are of Ware toy shop, opening Christmas presents (including the year I asked my uncle for a Han Hoth, and he gave me a nice Palitoy 30 back one, plus a box of Maltesers and a cheque topping the present up to £10, which is what he'd spent on each of my brothers), BMX'ing and fishing with my mates, walking the dog along the River Lea and in Presdales Woods, causing a bomb scare in a different toy shop when I left a new boxed pair of shoes behind me after drooling over a white TIE Fighter for 10 minutes

 

[TheJabbaWookie]

If only I could remember the shops of my childhood in so much detail. A little later than Star Wars I clearly remember shopping in W.E.Wass in Colchester but my only vivid memory of shelves full of Star Wars goodies was in Tesco.

 

[weasel]

1991 has some great defining albums... one's that I still listen to avidly even today. Nevermind by Nirvana, The Black Album by Metallica, Alive by Pearl Jam, Blood Sugar Sex Magik by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gish by the Smashing Pumpkins to name but a few. Not to mention alternative dance albums by The KLF, Massive Attack and Orbital.

Gish?
Siamese Dreams is still the greatest album ever made, and anyone who disagrees gets banned! :lol: . Meloncolie and the infinite sadness is also classic. Gish is ehhh, well, it's an album. Lol

I never said it topped Siamese Dream just sited it as a great album. Please don't ban me please

Alright, you can stay. I'll just have to ban someone else. Lol

 

[Robstyley]

I'm right there with you mate. That was a pretty special time for me too. I turned 16 in 91' and 91/92 was my last year at school. You're right, so much great music came out at that time and I was right in the thick of it. I started going to pubs and clubs and played my first gig with my band - at the Roundacre in Basildon. I had a really good bunch of mates and I just remember everything being a right laugh. It was a time of discovery on many fronts. Getting high, going to parties, meeting new people, discovering girls and sex. We used to have fires and jams in the woods. I bought my first motorbike and used to ride it round my neighbourhood and the local fields(illegally). I went to Guns n Roses at Wembley stadium with my sister and best mate in Aug 91'. So many good memories from those days. And a lot of what I did also revolved around music. This is a pic of me in my Mums garden summer 92', about when I left school. Drinking cheap lager and smoking Marlboro :lol:

p.s Pearl Jams debut album is called Ten 8)