The Homesick [Mixtape & Notes]

Mixtape
This music that helped me through this fic, all carefully chosen and relating to the plot (and the songs even follow it chronologically! ...in my brain). And, to go with the overall theme, it consists solely of British and Irish acts. (Or one Irish act. How come they only have bands like Westlife or The Corrs?) Completely on the biased side, but I think the mixtape is good.

Click here for the mixtape!

Tracklist
1. The Smiths – Panic
2. Pulp – Something Changed
3. Mogwai – R U Still in 2 It
4. Camera Obscura – Lloyd, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken
5. The Cure – To Wish Impossible Things
6. David Bowie – Let’s Spend the Night Together
7. The Rolling Stones – Angie
8. Arab Strap – (If There’s) No Hope for Us
9. Damien Rice – Cannonball
10. Patrick Wolf – The Magic Position
11. Led Zeppelin – Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You
12. Fleetwood Mac – Go Your Own Way
13. Los Campesinos! – Heart Swells/Pacific Daylight Time
14. Teenage Fanclub – What You Do To Me
15. Bat for Lashes – Daniel
16. Manic Street Preachers – A Design for Life

I had to kick off with Panic to help everyone visualise Panic in the streets of London, Panic in the streets of Birmingham, Dundee, Humberside, etc., and also because the story kicks off with Spencer listening to Morrissey. (PATD did not get their name from this song.) Teenage Fanclub are, in fact, Scottish despite the guy singing with an American accent. Angie is one of the best break up songs ever, of all time, in any galaxy. I know Fleetwood Mac is pushing it, but the band is originally English and the song is amazing and fit the story, so it made the soundtrack.

I hope you enjoy this collection of, uh, Anglo-Scotto-Welsh-Irish music spreading over four decades or so. <3



Notes

Since the majority of PATD slash readers tend to be North American, I felt the need to separate fact from fiction. I also figured it might be helpful to list things that would otherwise get lost in translation, though I did try to write them in a self-explanatory way in the story. However, I’m not British, and anyone better informed is allowed to put me in my place. I hope you find this helpful or at least informative!

On the languages
Not all Welshmen and not all Irishmen speak their respective vernacular languages. However, both Irish and Welsh are nowadays taught to children in schools, and thus Ryan speaks Irish, and Spencer speaks Welsh because I think it’s really damn cool (random fact: Irish is officially the first language of Ireland – English is second. It’s symbolic, but still! How cool is that?). Spencer also grew up with his family using Welsh in everyday life. Jon does not speak Gaelic, since that language is far more disadvantaged than Welsh/Irish, and neither is it in common use in Scotland (apart from a few areas in the Highlands, but Jon is from the Lowlands).

Factual error
Ryan’s academic career doesn’t actually add up. He has been doing his M.Phil. for a year when we kick off and is doing his second and final year in the story. If Ryan had been upgraded into a Ph.D. student, it should have been done earlier than in the last semester of his final year. However, I couldn’t be bothered working around this error because the way I had it worked best for the plot, but it’s not how the post-graduate system would, to my knowledge, realistically work.

Terminology, bits and pieces
the now----------"just now", e.g. "I can't do it the now" = "I can't do it just now"
Gordon Brown------the British Prime Minister. Scottish, actually! Tony Blair was Scottish too. Anyway...
Oxfam-------------a charity organisation fighting poverty in Third World Countries (amongst other things)
tara--------------Welsh – goodbye
byt---------------Welsh slang – mate
craic-------------the Irish word for “fun”, “a good time”, e.g. “It was craic!” or “How’s the craic?”, meaning, “How’s it going?”
Irn Bru-----------an orange fizzy drink from Scotland. Extremely delicious!
mot---------------Irish slang - girlfriend
Ireland 1916------the Easter Rising, Irish nationalists rebel against British rule, declaring the Irish Republic. The revolt is crushed, the leaders executed. Ireland later gains independence in 1922.
chav-------------a young, under-aged, working class hooligan
ned--------------the Scottish version of a chav
Edward I---------King of England 1239-1307, notorious for conquering Wales and nearly crushing Scotland too.
cwch------------Welsh – “hug”