We have a new feature starting today and running every Tuesday, My First Music Memory.
The Idea is to write in a few paragraphs your earliest memory of music and the story behind it.
Today we feature Niamh Colclough. Niamh is a Journalism Student at the University of South Wales.
If you would like to tell us about your First Music Memory, Please email to infocardifflive@gmail.com
If its just a Paragraph or much more thats ok, It’s all about the moment you fell in love with Music.
Niamh Colclough - My first music Memory
I don’t ever recall a particular ‘first music experience’ in my life, music has been something that’s simply always been there, my grandma used to tell me that I was born with a microphone in my hand and that music was just something that was a natural part of me. My childhood was completely surrounded and engulfed by creativity and music due to my family and friends. One of my moms strongest memories of me was from when I was only two years old. It was Eurovision 2001 and I was sat on the living room floor in my chair doing nothing but being a lazy baby (as I always was), this was until my mom flicked over to BBC for the Eurovision song contest. Every time I ask her about this story she smiles and as much as she doesn’t like to admit it, I know it chokes her up. I could not stop dancing, shaking my chubby little arms around with the widest grin on my face to the cringeworthy European dance tracks. My mom always says that this was the day she new I had a special place in may heart just for music.
As I said though, music has always been there to me, every memory throughout my childhood and significant stages of my life contains elements of music or creativity. But there is one particular time where I think my passion really came to life. I must have been about 5 or 6 when my parents showed me my first musical, it was the Wizard Of Oz. Being such a weird and wacky child, the combination of the story line, bizarre characters and wonderful music made me fall head over heels in love with it, alongside musicals in general. I must have watched the film over 10 times in that one week, and I remember physically wanting to be Judy Garland (but who doesn’t hey?). This is what really set off my passion for music.
The following week my dad had got me a poster of The Wizard Of Oz and had hung it above my bed in my room, it was honestly one if not the best thing id ever received (and I was a very lucky child). Every time I looked at it I felt inspired and driven to perform and create. Due to the constant singing coming from my room, blasting music all day and the ceiling almost coming down every ten minutes from too much dancing, my parents became aware of my musical passions very quickly.
I have been lucky enough to have one of the most supportive families i have ever known and this was evident from my early childhood days. They got me started on piano lessons the following week, I stuck to the piano for about a year but I knew that wasn’t my passion. I wanted to sing, I wanted to perform, I wanted to be the star. But at the time - being only 7 years old - the thought of sharing my voice in front of others was excruciatingly terrifying. I never shared my voice with anyone, not even my parents knew that I could sing the way I did. This was Until year 7, my first year of ‘big’ school. The music department were hosting a musical evening full of singers, choirs, musicians etc and it was my first live solo singing Leona Lewis, Run. I can genuinely picture and re live the exact moment in my head, feeling for feeling. I was completely terrified, frozen and drowning with fear, I can remember the horrible sinking feeling I got in my heart - you know the one - … but I did it. My dad always tells me to this day of the reaction from the whole auditorium when I opened my mouth. It was the first time anyone, let alone my parents and teachers, had heard me sing. And the rest was history…
Since that day my fear and anxiety left, just getting that response from that one performance changed me as a person completely. It was all I needed to know I could make it, to know that I was good enough. I quickly became the lead roles in the school music productions, my parents got me professional vocal training lessons each week, I taught myself how to play guitar and began writing my own music and much more. This drive is still instilled in me today, even though I chose writing as my path, music is still implemented in everything I do, within my journalism and my day to day life. Most importantly my passion for music is just as awake as it was on that day I watched the Wizard of Oz for the first time. - The poster of which is still up on my wall by the way.
