Music

I pleaded a long time for a record player and sure enough for my 11th or 12th Birthday I was given a small unit from Fidelity, a 45rpm single, ‘Little Donkey’ by Nina & Frederik and an LP, ‘Peter and the Wolf / The Young Persons Guide to The Orchastra’.  I upgraded the Fidelity to a Dansette autochange in 1967, during my time at Wolverhampton University, using money earned at a part-time job as a kitchen porter and commis chef. My tastes in music, like all kids and teenagers has been varied, but I was besotted with Connie Francis, the Everly Brothers and Adam Faith in my early years. In 1963 I saw ‘It Happened At The Worlds Fair’ and waved Adam Faith goodbye and ushered in Elvis Presley. The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Bobby Vee, Gene Pitney, The Four Seasons, Neil Sedaka and the sound of Phil Spector would fill the house throughout the sixties and around 1968 I heard ‘In Search of the Lost Chord’ and welcomed the wonderful sounds of the Moody Blues to the fold and have purchased all of their releases over the years. The 70’s was a turbulent time for me and music as I tried to find something to relate to, The Idle Race, Blood, Sweat & Tears, The Strawbs, ELO, Chicago, David Bowie and the harmonies of Simon & Garfunkle were just some of the many names I sampled during this time. By now I had a growing collection of film soundracks that had started in the 60’s with ‘It’s Trad Dad’ and by now included ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, ‘Barbarella’, ‘Silent Running’, ‘Ice Station Zebra’ and ‘2001’ and around 50 or so others. The 70’s ushered in a wonderful time for soundtracks with re-releases of many MGM, WB and RKO musicals as well as numerous compilations, including the excellent Bernard Herrmann releases from Deccas’ Phase 4 label, and do you remember the Sunset label, some good re-releases there too. I was fascinated with electronic and Moog and was overjoyed at the sounds of Walter (Wendy) Carlos’s ‘Switched on Bach’, so it was only natural that as the 80’s ticked by I would enjoy it’s sounds, especially Erasure. Heavy Metal wasn’t my cup of tea and is something I’ve always found hard to listen to, as is Rap and most of the other modern music fads. The 90’s and 2000’s haven’t inspired me to buy many CD’s. I sold all my Elvis vinyl, over 100 LP’s, his EP’s and singles to Vince, a staff member at Derann and offloaded well over 300 soundtrack albums at various open days. At one time I had a very large collection of classical, especially ballet, all gone now.  I love the sounds of The Alan Parsons Project and have replaced the Elvis and Moody Blues vinyl with CD’s, as well as a few favourite soundtracks. These days I have a much quieter musical appetite, building up a collection of soundtracks from Toho’s Godzilla movies and enjoy most of the work from Sarah Brightman, who puts on terrific live shows.