The 90's had everything. It had everything the previous decades had, even The Beatles. Well, sort of. Since my Mum had always been a huge fan, the Fab Four had always been part of my musical life. But it was in 1995 that I started exploring their remarkable music further, coinciding with the news that remaining members Paul, George and Ringo were to reunite and complete some unreleased John Lennon demos, effectively a Beatles reunion on record. With the great new bands of the mid 90's evoking the glory days of British music in the 60's, it seemed an appropriate time for them to return. Yes it did feel a bit weird, but tremendously exciting. Everything was back then. I had massively high hopes for 'Free As A Bird', after all this was the greatest band of all time making a comeback. Some would quite reasonably argue that the majestic 'Abbey Road' was the perfect way to say goodbye, and that this partial reunion was unnecessary, even wrong. But I loved it. Especially that key change during the guitar solo. The song was premiered along with a wonderfully nostalgic promo video as part of the 'Anthology' television series that I watched avidly as my love for the group's music grew and grew. I bought the single on CD the week it came out, and played it pretty much repeatedly (along with the b sides). I even played the undeniably downbeat track during my DJ sets at the club, although it would be aired towards the end of the night as things wound down. Unbelievably, this beautiful song was held off the number one spot by Michael Jackson's below-par 'Earth Song'. Yes, 1995 saw a lot of classic singles being denied the top slot by some truly terrible records, but better than every single decent song of the time being ignored in favour of utterly worthless trash (hello 2013).
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