Music is my First Second Love………………

My father must have been very tolerant of me as a child. Not only did he let me play his records but he didn’t lose his temper when I broke some of them. Back in the 1960’s when I was playing with his 78 collection I had no idea how fragile they were nor of their sentimentality to him. This was the time that he introduced me to Nat King Cole and 50’s Rock ‘n Roll that, no doubt, he had grown up with. There always seemed to be music playing in the house I was born into and others I grew up in. We only had a small, and growing smaller, collection of records but we had several radio sets and listened to classical music and show tunes on Sunday’s. Later, in my pre and early teens, I listened to pirate radio and Radio Luxemburg on Long Wave as it faded in and out with atmospheric conditions. I often fell asleep at weekends listening to the latest pop songs unavailable on British radio.

In the 70’s I was lucky enough to be tolerated by my older brother and his friends who took me on record buying trips. Of course I couldn’t afford to buy any but I could look, dream and listen to whatever the shop was playing at the time. While the rest of them were off somewhere I seemed to naturally gravitate to the Prog Rock section populated by Rick Wakeman, Pink Floyd and Yes. In a friend’s house we played pool and listened to Wishbone Ash. One of my all-time favourites in still Argus by that band. I even listened to it a few days ago. Of course the 70’s was an era of massive change musically. I still have strong memories of my brothers cassette collection in the early 70’s made up of disco and Motown with tape after tape of Sister Sledge and Diana Ross. Then, almost out of nowhere everything changed. Punk had arrived with Souixsie and the Banshees and Toya Wilcox. I loved the new sound, the rawness and energy after the rather staid and repetitive sounds previously. Within the space of a few years we had Bubblegum Pop, Glam Rock, Punk, New Wave, New Romantic and Electro-Pop. It was a music lover’s feast. Then came MY decade. The 80’s.

There seemed to be an almost inverse relationship between how awful the decade was and how amazing the music was. I don’t know if any of us could have survived the political and economic upheavals without Duran Duran, The Thompson Twins and the Buggles. We even had glimpses of MTV (usually shown late at night on the more ‘radical’ Channel 4 – yes, we had FOUR channels back then!). I have so many 80’s compilation CD’s I probably have every song produced in those great 10 years. It certainly feels that way. But time & music wait for no man. As much as I loved the 80’s (and still do) I started to fall in love with 90’s music too – indeed I have a 90’s compilation playing right now – most of the more pop stuff I could live without but still gets my feet taping. But there was really good stuff back then. Not as good as the 80’s but close, damned close.

Again I credit family and friends for introducing me to music I may not have heard or spent much time with. I learnt to love Joy Division and New Order, U2 and Pink. My brother introduced me to Black Rebel Motorcycle Gang and other friends introduced me to Stereophonics, Manic Street Preachers and Placebo. I was introduced to 30 Seconds to Mars and Train. Some music I stumbled upon myself in movies, adverts, in shops or various music channels on cable TV. There was Stained, Sneaker Pimps, Kidney Thieves, Avril Lavigne and Adelle. There’s First Aid Kit, Avenged Seven Fold and Alanis Morissette. About the only type of music that I’ve never managed to grow to love is Jazz. I’ve tried more than once but have never really ‘got’ it. Now Blues, that’s a whole other ball of wax. I truly LOVE the Blues. It’s CHILLS me completely no matter how I’m feeling. Listening to a few good Blues CDs and the world is right again.

Some people are amazed at how wide my taste in music is. I sometimes don’t know ‘technically’ what genre a bit of music falls into but I know, as they say, what I like – which is a LOT. I do like melody, the female voice, and words that you can actually hear. I don’t like much of the shouty stuff that passes for rock these days (Death Metal???) but even some of that is pretty good. I have a half dozen CDs of Avenged Seven Fold and Disturbed which can be pretty full on – at least in my world! I like old stuff (not even counting classical) and I like at least some of the modern stuff too. I experiment. I listen to what’s around. I take advice from friends. I keep my ear, as it where, to the ground. You never really know what you might turn up. Naturally I have hundreds and hundreds of CDs. I play music when I’m getting ready for work and turning on some music is one of the first things I do when I get home. From getting out of bed to going to bed over the weekend and holidays the house is full of music from multiple genres and multiple decades. I just couldn’t have it any other way. After all, music is my first second love……