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Today鈥檚 Memory Taper Emma Bedford, will make you feel inspired, emotional and - appropriately enough in Independent Venue Week - SO up for a gig.

Emma lives in listener hotspot Bristol. She was with us at the 6 Music Festival, in 2016, an experience which contributed to her decision to clock up 40 gigs in a year, to celebrate turning 40 years old (she actually ended up going to 51, met Tom at gig 27, and was in love by gig 44!)

And what a year it was. Many of the gig tickets were gifts, including donations from kind 6 Music listeners, who gave money to a stranger, so that she could complete her birthday gig challenge. Emma says: 鈥淭hey knew how much it meant. That kindness, and generosity, and shared spirit, and love of music, it just meant so much at a time that was really difficult.鈥�

鈥淚 had two major surgeries and survived sepsis in the space of eight months in the run up to this, as well as losing my Mum and a number of jobs. Music kept me alive, calm, and able to come to terms with all that. Seeing Starsailor live three times in three nights in December 2016 made me feel alive and vital for the first time in a long time. That is why I could think of no better way to celebrate my 40th than with gigs :)

It's all documented on my blog emmachampionsite.wordpress.com as I wrote reviews of every gig. I was also lucky enough to photograph some of them as well www.flickr.com/photos/emmafurious.

It wound up being the most amazing experience of my life. I found myself again. I found new friends and reconnected to old ones. It gave me so much joy and hope. Which in what have been dark times has been the most beautiful thing.

In addition I have kept a running playlist (40 gigs) and that's what I would like to submit as my Memory Tape (there are two gigs missing from the list, one was a covers band and the other was improvised jazz - and the list does include support acts). It is a pretty eclectic list, I saw all sorts of music from all sorts of genres. Audiences as big as 20,000 and as small as 10. There was jazz, opera, folk, rock, experimental, classical, indie, you name it. I didn't know many of the artists before I saw them either, I took a punt on a lot of random gigs and some of those were the best!

It is a Memory Tape for me, but also the wonderful friends who I shared it with along the way and the incredible artists I saw play live. So many people gave me money, bought me tickets or put me on a guestlist that I really couldn't have done it without them (the blog entry Farewell 40 gigs says it best). It鈥檚 a love letter to music.鈥�

1) Like You Do - C Duncan
2) Blues Duet - Mary Spender
3) Concerto for Percussion & Orchestra - Evelyn Glennie
4) Blood on the Hillside - Ninebarrow
5) Gentle Storm - Elbow
6) Turn it Around - The Pale White
7) Marquez Danzon no2 - Bristol Concert Orchestra
8) Deconstruction - Daniel Lanois
9) La Boheme
10) Pegasi - Jesca Hoop
11) Mesmer Mesmerising - Manu Delago
12) Open Heart - Winter Mountain
13) Cherry Tree - Xenia Rubinos
14) Other Side - C Dundan
15) Breathe Into Me - Mammut
16) Before - Vok
17) Year of the Clown - 3 Daft Monkeys
18) Easy Way Out - Low Roar
19) Feardriven - Furlined
20) 10 Years - Jay Phelps
21) Fast Asleep - Zoe Rahman
22) Good Souls - Starsailor
23) Switching Off - Elbow
24) Parachutes - India Electric Co
25) Spindrift - Colin Stetson
26) Tangled Roots - Yama Warashi
27) To Love Somebody - Karl Blau
28) The Search for Dark Lake - Laura Gibson
29) Mirrorball - Elbow
30) Black Hibiscus - Penquin Cafe
31) When The Stars Go Blue - Ryan Adams
32) Thistles - Jack Cookson
33) A Polyphonic Life - Jacob & Drinkwater
34) My Moon River - Sivu
35) Not Alone - Siv Jakobson
36) Holding on for love - Paul Thomas Saunders
37) Tide & Time - Kitty Macfarlane
38) Skewball live - False Lights
39) God Save The Hungry - Grace Petrie
40) On Yonder Hill - Hannah James
41) Sorceress - Jordan Rakei
42) FIA - Starsailor
43) The Last Time - Alex Francis
44) Take Me While I'm Here - Paves
45) Take a Little Time - Starsailor
46) Lost In My Ways - Up Down Go Machine
47) Sunday Best - Starsailor
48) Ton - Andrea Belfi
49) White Sands - Ride
50) Dorsal - Bing & Ruth
51) Isotach - Matthew Bourne
52) Boyfriend - Markia Hackman
53) Stronger When You Hold Me - Winter Mountain
54) Bamako - Songhoy Blues
55) Get Back - The Beatles (I saw the Bootleg Beatles obvs!)

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