
Those of you old enough to remember the 80’s like it was yesterday will be all too familiar with the concept of the ‘mixed tape.’ For those not in the know, it was a compilation you painstakingly put together on cassette tape for a loved one – most often a boy/girl you were trying to impress. Mixed tapes took time, thought, effort and energy – no dragging and dropping mp3 files onto a virtual playlist – a mixed tape was a real, physical thing you gave to someone as a token of your affection, to show that they were worth all the trouble, to show you cared. You hand wrote the sleeve in your best writing; tracks were carefully selected, edited, ripped off the radio on a Sunday afternoon, or copied from your vinyl music collection; selection criteria included poignant and meaningful lyrics with not-so-hidden messages, their favourite band, your favourite band, and always included a slightly quirky, off-the-wall choice to prove you were a hip, kinda interesting person, who above all, knew a bit about music. Despite nostalgia not being what it used to be, (and cassette now being an almost obsolete format,) the mixed tape philosophy lives on today, and it is in the spirit of this philosophy that I put together the playlists for my Happy Couples, one by one, piece by piece, individually crafted with love, just for you…