Evocative sounds

I'm only 20 minutes from Duxford IWM. I'm way too young to remember the 1940s, but nothing quite prepares you for the sound of spitfire passing over at low level on full chat.

I recommend going if you ever get the chance. The sound is something that cannot be reproduced on the TV, or even the cinema.
 
I'm only 20 minutes from Duxford IWM. I'm way too young to remember the 1940s, but nothing quite prepares you for the sound of spitfire passing over at low level on full chat.

I recommend going if you ever get the chance. The sound is something that cannot be reproduced on the TV, or even the cinema.

That reminds me of a clip from a documentary on the Spitfire. They asked a really rather good pilot to do a low pass over the presenter to cap off the intro. They weren't expecting how low the pilot considered low in that plane. When you see him appearing in the background over the field where the presenter is standing you have to look twice to see if he's airborne at all. I think he climbs a little to make sure he doesn't hit the presenter. I can't link to it because the presenter says one of the Naughty Magic Words that's forbidden on this forum. Several times. With feeling. It was as Duxford in 1996 - that should be enough information to find it on Youtube for anyone who wants to do so.
 
That reminds me of a clip from a documentary on the Spitfire. They asked a really rather good pilot to do a low pass over the presenter to cap off the intro. They weren't expecting how low the pilot considered low in that plane. When you see him appearing in the background over the field where the presenter is standing you have to look twice to see if he's airborne at all. I think he climbs a little to make sure he doesn't hit the presenter. I can't link to it because the presenter says one of the Naughty Magic Words that's forbidden on this forum. Several times. With feeling. It was as Duxford in 1996 - that should be enough information to find it on Youtube for anyone who wants to do so.

I just watched the clip on YouTube, on my first watch I didn't even spot the plane until it was right on top of him, what an incredible bit of flying. Absolutely amazing and their reaction was hilarious as well.
 
The loud roar of a fighter jet with afterburners on.

I used to go to Biggin Hill air show every year when I was a kid so it always takes me back!
 
Any music that hints towards an 80s synth sound has me all gooey (despite being born in the early 90s).

Smells always edge it for me though, as I think it does for most people. Had my first GF when I was 13 (yep, that was a boast :P) and she used to wear Ghost perfume. The smell of that stuff opens me up like a damn flower.
 
Music aside, I am another rain/wind/storm person. When I lived with my parents my bedroom window opened bottom out and literally less than a foot underneath it was a conservatory roof. I put the head of my bed right next to the window and on a rainy day I would open the window and lie in bed, literally right next to that soothing sound. I liked it so much I have even considered having a makeshift roof put under the bedroom window in my house but a) it would look silly and b) I don't think the wife would let me lol.
 
Or the voices of your many friends at the pub, with all there varying occupations and opinions, aye Chris ;)


I don't know what sort of pubs others go to, perhaps they just sit prodding screens and don't go out, but all the ones I have known and visited (and that's a LOT of pubs...) have customers of a vast range of occupation and opinion, and the nature of alcohol is to loosen the tongue and make conversation flow and to enable the forging of friendships or otherwise... :)
 
Music for me.

Probably for lots of people I guess, a song, or tune, will evoke a memory of someone, or a memory of a place, where something really good or bad happened.
e.g., if I hear Tears of a Clown, by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, I’m back to being a young trucker, overnighting in Lincoln, and getting lucky at a disco in a scouts hall, and as soon as Maggie May comes out of any speakers, I’m back in The Prince of Wales, Ruby Street, Peckham, holding hands with the drop dead gorgeous Polish girl that I left my wife for.
Unfortunately it all went **** up after 8 years, and it was a case of the biter bit.
Oh well, live by the sword, die by the sword, he said nonchalantly, while gnawing his lip until it bled, and looking at the screen through a mist of hot tears.
There is one tune that is guaranteed to knock me sideways, no matter where I am when I hear it, but it reduces me to a snivelling wreck if I hear it back in the old country.
If I’m in Lille, Lens, or sometimes Paris, on May 8th, VE Day, or Juillet Quatorze, Bastille Day, and the bands accompanying the marching soldiers strike up La Marseillaise, within minutes I slowly dissolve.
 
A good exhaust note on a car. When I hear cars like an F-Type SVR go past and blip the throttle, I get all giddy like a kid :D

Same with planes, me and my dad used to go watch Concorde when I was a boy, sat at the carparks near the bottom of the runway. As it came over the top of you, ground shaking, car alarms going off left right and centre, I was just in sheer awe every time. So although I'll never hear anything like it now the Vulcan is gone, any jet engine makes me think back to that :)
 
A few sounds make the hairs on my neck stand on end:
A Merlin V12 in a Spitfire, Mosquito, etc. The slide being pulled back on a well-maintained pistol.
Big waves breaking on rocks reminds me of my childhood
 
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