My 80s Playlist: Times Radio Breakfast host Aasmah Mir on how 80s music helped her 'remember bits' of her life

Virgin Radio

22 Apr 2024, 11:41

Times Radio broadcaster Aasmah Mir has opened up about how listening back to the music of her childhood helped to unlock certain memories while writing her memoir. 

Aasmah, who is part of the Times Radio Breakfast show with Stig Abell, released her book, A Pebble in the Throat, in 2023 and while stopping by Virgin Radio 80s Plus with host Steve Denyer, the radio star revealed that her beloved tracks from the era were the driving force behind many of the stories within the memoir’s pages.

She explained: “Listening to the music actually really helped me to remember bits of my life that I was putting in the book. I have playlists, which are just 80s, which are just kind of growing up. Whenever one pops into my head, or I see one on the TV and a TV show or whatever, I will always add it. 

“I have that as a kind of basis about all of the 80s. It was so different in so many ways.”

Meanwhile, Aasmah went into detail about not just listening to music from the 80s, but also experiencing life as an Asian teenager in Scotland. 

She confessed: “People were not as open minded…when it came to people who didn't look like them. Obviously, I mean, I'm an Asian and would’ve been an Asian teenager. I was the only one really at my school because it was a long time ago and it was Glasgow and things have very much come. 

“It was quite difficult back then and there were difficulties and you end up feeling quite isolated. So I had a very, very boring kind of one dimensional teenage period, but it was good for me in the end because I just got my studies and that kind of helped me. 

“Those things were important back then, perhaps not as much now, and I got my studies and I did really well.”

Listen to Aasmah Mir and Stig Abell with Times Radio Breakfast weekdays from 6am.

You can listen to Virgin Radio 80 Plus HERE. You can also listen on DAB+ in London and Central Scotland and on smart speakers across the UK, as well as via the Virgin Radio UK app.