I had a slightly odd moment in Morrisons earlier today.  Browsing in search of vegetables, my attention was caught by a song starting to play on the in-store music system. In the back of my mind, I was thinking “this song rings a bell”. Which is a bit daft really since, like all supermarkets, the background music in Morrisons is popular ex-chart stuff and it would be unusual if they played a song which I didn’t recognise. (Although, having said that, different supermarkets do seem to have different preferences in music – “Rotterdam” by The Beautiful South will always remind me of Sainsbury’s in Stoke). But, in this case, it sounded both strangely familar and yet out of place. So my brain immediately clicked into gear and I found myself playing “Name that Tune” as a challenge to myself to identify the artist and title before the lyrics kicked in.

It only took a couple of bars before I had twigged to what it was (and yes, I did win my internal challenge), but it still felt a bit out of place. And the reason it felt out of place was because I’m used to hearing it in an entirely different context. The song was “Real“, by Plumb, which used to be (and, for all I know, still is) a staple on Cross Rhythms Radio when I worked there. I know that Plumb has had some airplay on Radio 2, so it’s not entirely unexpected that at least one of her songs should crop up on a supermarket compilation, but it was still unexpected enough for me to think it incongruous.