72: Fischerspooner - Emerge

4th May 2002. Three days earlier, I'd turned 21. To celebrate my birthday, I had a barbecue at my student house in Oxford on the Saturday afternoon, whilst we watched the FA Cup Final (Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-0 with goals from Parlour and Ljungberg). Various friends had travelled down to Oxford from other universities to celebrate with me.

The pièce de résistance of the birthday weekend was St. Hilda's College Arts Festival. In my role as station manager/DJ at Oxford Student Radio, I had been asked to play the headline DJ set. By the time I came onstage at 2am, the crowd were drunk, happy, and in the mood for a dance. I satisfied that desire, playing an electroclash/dance set that I'm still proud of today (I have my original setlist, if anyone is interested). Felix Da Housecat, Jilted Generation-era Prodigy, Kosheen, Ms Kittin and the Hacker, the odd mashup... everything was well received, as the crowd got drunker and danced harder.

And then, I dropped Fischerspooner's 'Emerge'. The place went berserk. Sweaty bodies flying around the room, arms flailing in the air as the beats reached a crescendo (and let's face it - no song this decade has a crescendo quite like that found in this song). I felt like I was on top of the world.

Every birthday should be as much fun as my 21st was. And this song is inextricably linked to that night in my brain.