It’s generally accepted that the end of a calendar year is the designated appropriate time for reflection, for looking back while we rest, to recharge the batteries and prepare to move forward when January is upon us. Then 1st January happens and you’re torn from the nostalgic slumber and post Christmas haze. It’s go time, pal!
In a small act of personal rebellion against the seemingly growing trend of those who take down their Christmas tree the second festivities are over on Boxing Day, I opted to delay taking ours down by a few days more than usual. I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t in part because putting them up takes so damn long when your baubles are a meticulously curated collection and I wanted to get more value for the time invested.
Maybe it was because of this and the self imposed downtime at home over the Christmas break, that I’d built the walls of my cocoon a little thicker to have to break through when the first full week of the year rolled around.
I’d made some good progress during the break on sorting through some life baggage, both physical and digital. This was my cocoon and two weeks into the year I’m still retreating into it each day. The momentum of finally completing jobs I’ve had on lists mounting up for years has become addictive. A problem with this, is that part of ticking these tasks off involves facing down reminders of the past, some recent, some distant. It’s made for a bit of a weird headspace when everything else in life feels suddenly angled forward.
Even my first proper excursion of the year had an amount of this paradox about it. Back out and among the general public (who I avoid like a miserable sod in late December for fear of Christmas brain steering their actions into my general direction) in an arena with a few thousand of them to see Peter Kay, my favourite comedian of 25 years ago, performing a show I booked tickets for in summer 2024. As I sunk into my seat it was like I was back on the sofa watching another repeat from a quarter of a century ago (I mean that positively, but honestly).
This week, just as I’ve begun to recalibrate myself, a trend has surfaced on social media, with people posting photos of themselves from 2016. Why? Other than the hard lean into numerical based nostalgia for content purposes (you know I’ve been there enough, I’ll sit this one out), I think the underlying tone is that the year ahead looks a bit daunting geopolitically and socio-economically.
But jeez, let’s not look at 2016 with rose tinted glasses for so long we forget it was that year that got us into a fair percentage of the mess we’re in now!
Despite moving forward feeling like walking through treacle, I am finding motivation, if only in mind (a start I guess). On Wednesday I ventured across to Southbourne on a rainy school night to see local hero, Gordon Fong play a DJ set of some of his favourite records on vinyl for colleagues and friends at Syd’s Slaps. A winter warmer to get folks through a January, that has so far been both cold and damp in equal measures, with Gordon’s own nostalgia baked in as he played his first ‘public’ set (looking back, moving forward..).
You can listen to Gordon’s full set in a recorded version from home on his YouTube channel.
The reality is, as much as we can choose to look back, ahead or even to the sides, forward is our only directional option for actual movement as time propels us. We can take the past with us though, and technology has made a huge contribution to this phenomena. To lug a series of photo albums might influence my enthusiasm in time for carrying the past along, to hold it all in cloud storage, accessible from anywhere with an internet connection and the convenience negates the need to consider the worth – It’s there if you want it, if you don’t, well it’s still there anyway.
Our constant connection to one another facilitates nostalgia like a launch pad. I’m in awe at the number of bands of my teenage years who are mounting a comeback, without much need to break back through. We’re all still here, waiting on the line. “Sorry for the 18 year late reply, here’s our new single”.
2026 has already brought about a fine example, The Academy Is… just announced a new album, the first preview, a track entitled 2005. Drink this sugary dose of nostalgia Elder Emos and lull yourself back into that comfortable coma.
Let’s hibernate a little longer.
Liam Toms 