Tuesday 12 February 2013

My youth in records...


An early Valentine present from C arrived in the post this morning. I have been talking about record players on and off for a while. I am sure we are not the only people with a pile or records in the loft, but nothing to play them on. I can't remember what happened to our record player, I suppose that it became replaced by a CD player and CD's.

So with great excitment I grabbed a pile of LP's from the collection, and have had a lovely afternoon playing them, so many memories......

One of the first I played was the Eric Clapton album - 461 Ocean Boulevard, shown in the above picture. This reminded me of staying (for quite long periods of time) with a friend who was doing her teacher training at Chester, it was an album that was always put on when we came in from a night out, real chillin music, 'Let it grow' is one of my favourite tracks and I had not heard it for years. I do remember buying the album for myself from HMV in Liverpool. Can't say I can remember where I bought a lot of my CD's from, probably because they were bought online ?


This Ian Hunter album was one I played a lot in my bedroom as a teenager, I think a boyfriend introduced me to his music. I seem to remember it was one I would put on to listen to as as I was going to sleep, I did that a lot. Still sounds great today.


Soft Cell, 'Tainted Love' was constantly on repeat on the Juke box in my college common room.


I was a Mod when I was 14,15,16, I had a fish tail parka just like in the above picture, mine was plain though, I would wear it constantly, usually over the top of a boating blazer, which was in turn worn over ski pants (I remember a particulaly fetching dogtooth pattern pair from C&A) and these white nylon long sleeved tops that we used to buy from Littlewoods ! and of course I had the obligitory Bowling shoes that I bought on a  trip to London when I was about 14.
I bought this album which was The Who's sound track from the film Quadrophenia, which was somewhat cult viewing in our group. This album has a thick booklet in the middle of black and white images from the film, looking through today I was surprised to see that I still really like some of them, they may actually find there way into frames and put up on a wall.


I am a huge Bob Dylan fan, have been for a long time, oddly enough I can't think why or who would have introduced me to his music, it could have been my ex brother in law actually, I do think he influenced a lot of my music choices. It was strange to listen to this particular Dylan album, which is one of my favourites, this afternoon, earlier Jake Bug had been on Radio One and the similarities between him and Dylan at this time are so similar. We saw Jake Bug last year when he supported Michael Kiwanuka in Manchester, I remember saying to C at time that I thought his music sounded a bit like skiffle bands of the 1960's. which this album has a feel of too.

 
 
You know I could go on and on working through this small selection of my LP's, there are still pile in the loft. I had to finish with The Jam, I did have all their albums, but only this one seems to have survived. Friday nights in the small town in the Lake District where I spent my teenage years had a definite pattern to it - home from school, watch neighbours, eat tea, watch 'The Tube', whilst getting ready to go out, and then go and meet my friend Deborah at 'The Meths', which was a small youth club/disco in the celler of the towns Methodist church.It was the most amazing place to hang out, everyone went, funny though, thinking back I can't remember there ever being any adults there, but surely there must have been, I can't image that they would let crowds of 14 and 15 year olds be unsupervised ? Who knows... If you were lucky you you would get walked home by a boy, and if you were really lucky he might have bought you a cone of chips and gravy. Happy days...
 

2 comments:

  1. We have a big box of records...and nothing to play them on! Some of them are very early Beatles and Stones, some classical. One of these days I'll go through them (and probably get rid of them!)

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  2. Hello I just stumbled on you through blog hoping! ~ And I am really pleased that I did! You have brought back such a lot of memories back to me through this record collection!WOW Soft cell was my first album bought! The Jam I simply adored (especially Paul Weller) I had a chuckle about the cone of chips after an evening out too! ~ But what made me smile most was your mention of the Lake district as I live about 20 minutes away from the beautiful Lakes !! He He...
    My daughter has just seen Jake Bug last week in Preston too! And last of all I am called Guess! Maria x
    Lovely to stumble on you! Ooh I have just given my daughter my old albums to decorate her room...The Smiths Prince Blondie etc!! Now that makes me feel a little vintage!!! Bye for now....

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