You may or may not be aware that I’m a bit of a
fan of Hanson.
At the age of 10 I discovered Hanson.
In fact it was my mother who pointed them out to me. I immediately became (maybe
a little bit) obsessed (not like my walls were covered in posters or anything).
I listened to Hanson's 'Middle of Nowhere' on my casette player so much on
repeat, that I think I actually wore it out. 'MMMbop', 'Where's the Love' and
'I Will Come to You' will always evoke memories of my childhood.. I will always
be sadded to not discover, "where did Jonny go?!" (Yearbook
reference, check your facts). I was forever scarred by my sisters as I sang
along to Hanson WITH MY HEADPHONES ON completely out of tune and thus I was
branded tone deaf the rest of my life and refused to sing... (I got a 2 out of
10 when I was forced to sing Happy Birthday for my music teacher at school.. I
could have been great...)
My mother surprised me by taking me to
my very first concert to see Hanson at the mere age of 11 years old. She had
convinced me that I was too young to go see them, and I moaned all day at
school how unfair it was that Hanson were breathing the same air and I could
not be there. Later that day she picked me up from my ballet
lesson and surprised me with tickets the show at Wembley Stadium. It was
absoloutely amazing. I remember that Zac had glow in the dark drum sticks,
apparently I asked my mum for permission to
raise my hands in the air and it was also the highest decibel ever recorded concert. Because we were all little
girls. And mothers.
My mother hoped (plotted, planned, who
knows) that I would end up marrying Taylor Hanson. She
thought I'd become an Olympic runner (I gave up running in my early teenage
years, so sorry Mum..) and that I'd meet Hanson at some Olympic event and ta-da,
the marriage bells would ring.
Well sorry mother, you got it
half right. I did fall in love and marry someone with beautiful
long blonde locks. Only their name is Whitney.
My mother absolutely loves and accepts
me as her gay daughter and also embraces Whitney as her own daughter as
well.
Still, I'm sorry Taylor that we were
not meant to be. But it turns out we both have great taste
in women ;)
15 years later I'm returning
the favour and I'm taking my mother to see her
non-future son-in-law (& Zac and Ike) this Sunday 8th December in
London.
When I gave mother tickets to see Hanson back on
her birthday back in June (see this video) she got a bit excited when she saw what grown up Taylor now looks
like.
Taylor, perhaps it was my mother after
you all along ;)
Hanson, thank you providing such great songs
throughout all of my childhood - We look forward to bopping along to your tunes
on Sunday, and this time I’ll be giving my mother permission to raise her hands
in the air.
