‘We listened to “our tape” on our first night as newlyweds’
Samantha Brick, 50, a journalist, from Birmingham
Meand my first serious boyfriend started dating when we were 17. I was an indie girl, while he was a Prince fan. I loved introducing him to The Smiths, The Cure, Talking Heads… This was back in the late Eighties and I was a sixth form cliché!
We were joined at the hip throughout our A-level years and, when we’d finished, went on holiday to Turkey to celebrate. We were both doing different things that Autumn. I was going to university in London and he was taking a gap year.
While in Turkey, he presented me with a mix tape he’d made. It had all our favourite songs on it, everything from St Etienne’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart to
The Stone
Roses’ I Wanna Be Adored. I was speechless – in the two years we’d been together, he’d never done anything like this. He’d made us each one, with the exact same songs. It must have taken him hours. That first week at uni was tough. I was homesick, missing my boyfriend and had the tape on repeat. Inevitably, I got into the swing of student life. By Christmas, we’d amicably broken up. We kept in touch, though, and fast-forward to our late 20s, we got back together. He proposed while on holiday in India for my 30th birthday.
We married in Australia and that night, he said he had a surprise. Imagine my face when he presented the tape and had even managed to get hold of a cassette player.
We listened to ‘our tape’ that evening on the terrace while celebrating our first night as newlyweds. Even though we’re no longer together, I still think about that gesture and how romantic it was for my teenage self to receive.