We did have records in our house when I was growing up. There was a load of 7" singles that my sisters had bought and some which we must have acquired from somewhere (jumble sale?) as they had a massive hole in the middle which meant they'd been used in a jukebox. Most of the singles that had been bought were by 10cc, a band I've always loathed - Rubber Bullets, Life is a Minestrone, Wall Street Shuffle and I'm Not in Love being particular targets for my hate.
Then an album -or LP as they were known then - by Leo Sayer arrived in the house, it was called Endless Flight with a 'falling' Sayer in comedy pose on the front. The back was an upside-down photo of his ankles and shoes, he was wearing Snoopy socks. On the inner sleeve was a picture of the curly-haired squirt laughing with another curly-haired turd. I used to think it was Sayer's much taller brother as they looked alike. I was wrong; turns out it was 10cc's Graham Gouldman who'd co-wrote and, I think, produced the record - there was no escape from bloody 10cc. It never seemed to be off our HMV record player, (Which included a handy 'thingy' for the purposes of loading up half a dozen singles which would drop down, one by one, when the previous one had finished. And the stylus/needle? That was a laugh, it was more like a carpet tack) but I don't recall it containing any of Sayer's hits.
My younger sister then became the main record-buyer in our house. She was into all that New Romantic bollocks. Most of her records were pap but she did own ABC's Lexicon of Love, which I still think is a terrific record.
So, how did I arrive at metal? Well, I was a late starter, I didn't buy my first proper metal album until I was 17. Up until then I knew that is was going to be rock music for me. From the age of about 12 I was into Big Country and Simple Minds. In a big way. I loved that whole plaid shirts and guitars-that-sound-like-bagpipes thing that Ver Country had going on. The Crossing and its follow-up Steeltown were never off the house's Hitachi stacker stereo (we'd progressed from the HMV mono set-up by 1982).
Simple Minds were a little edgier, they used synthesizers and
featured a charismatic frontman called Jim Kerr. Well I thought he was charismatic; it was as this point in their career that Kerr was an item of ridicule for the NME and Melody Maker. And to be fair he was a bit of an arsehole at the time. The stuff they were bringing out in the mid-80s was miles away from their early-80s purple patch when they were spoken about in the same way that people speak about Radiohead today - you know 'pushing the boundaries'.
So we have The Crossing and Steeltown by Big Country and Sparkle in the Rain, Once Upon a Time and Live in the City of Light by Simple Minds as your starting points. They were all, undeniably, rock albums. All loud guitars and stadium-shaking choruses. But I wanted something more, after a brief dalliance with It Bites (modern prog from Cumbria, big hit: Calling All the heroes. Great second album Once Around the World flopped) I decided to be a goth.
The problem with goth was it was a very limited scene and I've never worn make-up in my life. Although I was a big fan of The Mission's Children album and All About Eve's eponymous debut album (besides I had the serious hots for their lead singer Julianne Regan) my heart was never really in it.
I wanted something harder (oo-er), something to push the boundaries and piss off my parents.
Then I met Al.
Then an album -or LP as they were known then - by Leo Sayer arrived in the house, it was called Endless Flight with a 'falling' Sayer in comedy pose on the front. The back was an upside-down photo of his ankles and shoes, he was wearing Snoopy socks. On the inner sleeve was a picture of the curly-haired squirt laughing with another curly-haired turd. I used to think it was Sayer's much taller brother as they looked alike. I was wrong; turns out it was 10cc's Graham Gouldman who'd co-wrote and, I think, produced the record - there was no escape from bloody 10cc. It never seemed to be off our HMV record player, (Which included a handy 'thingy' for the purposes of loading up half a dozen singles which would drop down, one by one, when the previous one had finished. And the stylus/needle? That was a laugh, it was more like a carpet tack) but I don't recall it containing any of Sayer's hits.
My younger sister then became the main record-buyer in our house. She was into all that New Romantic bollocks. Most of her records were pap but she did own ABC's Lexicon of Love, which I still think is a terrific record.
So, how did I arrive at metal? Well, I was a late starter, I didn't buy my first proper metal album until I was 17. Up until then I knew that is was going to be rock music for me. From the age of about 12 I was into Big Country and Simple Minds. In a big way. I loved that whole plaid shirts and guitars-that-sound-like-bagpipes thing that Ver Country had going on. The Crossing and its follow-up Steeltown were never off the house's Hitachi stacker stereo (we'd progressed from the HMV mono set-up by 1982).
Simple Minds were a little edgier, they used synthesizers and
featured a charismatic frontman called Jim Kerr. Well I thought he was charismatic; it was as this point in their career that Kerr was an item of ridicule for the NME and Melody Maker. And to be fair he was a bit of an arsehole at the time. The stuff they were bringing out in the mid-80s was miles away from their early-80s purple patch when they were spoken about in the same way that people speak about Radiohead today - you know 'pushing the boundaries'.So we have The Crossing and Steeltown by Big Country and Sparkle in the Rain, Once Upon a Time and Live in the City of Light by Simple Minds as your starting points. They were all, undeniably, rock albums. All loud guitars and stadium-shaking choruses. But I wanted something more, after a brief dalliance with It Bites (modern prog from Cumbria, big hit: Calling All the heroes. Great second album Once Around the World flopped) I decided to be a goth.
The problem with goth was it was a very limited scene and I've never worn make-up in my life. Although I was a big fan of The Mission's Children album and All About Eve's eponymous debut album (besides I had the serious hots for their lead singer Julianne Regan) my heart was never really in it.
I wanted something harder (oo-er), something to push the boundaries and piss off my parents.
Then I met Al.
No comments:
Post a Comment