I’m a 90’s kid so my first memory of music is the Spice Girls, more of a trend really. But then I was introduced to Bryan Adams by my friend who was a keen guitar player. Then another friend got me into the pop punk/nu metal scene which was big at the time, with bands like Blink 182, Limp Bizkit, Korn etc. then moving on through my teen years is when I started discovering music for myself, from The Red Hot Chili Peppers to Fleetwood Mac, & now I have a wide range of favourite bands, artists & genres. Only started collecting Vinyl a few years ago, just my favourite albums mainly.
I'm with Auntie Dot. Jim Reeves was a favourite along with Judith Durham. 1st single I bought was Its now or never - Elvis. Singles. EP's and LP's terms we used , never really used the word album.
As a kid in the mid-late 80s, I didn't really get music. I didn't know what I liked, but I did know what I didn't like - which was most of the stuff that my schoolmates were listening to and in the charts. Then one day around 87 I started sixth form, found kids listening to music I liked, was recommended the John Peel show - so at the time, lots of Sonic Youth, Wedding Present, House of Love, Wonderstuff, Pixies and other guitar-based indie stuff and between that and "Out on Blue Six" (Mark Radcliffe and Marc RIley on Radio 5!! for the youngsters) discovered my musical mojo. Did my first Reading in 89 (did 5 consecutive full festivals another at Leeds years later, and 2 for 1 day), 3 Glastonburys, 2 Phoenix festivals, 1 or 2 Leeds festivals (the old one in Headingley), 1 Download and have probably seen something like 1000 bands play live over the years. Not so many for a while due to work/time/family/money, but have seen 11 live sets so far this year, with 2 more booked. Best concerts: Pop Will Eat Itself (reformation gig at Birmingham), Nirvana at Reading (both times), Pixies (Reading), Wonderstuff (last gig at Phoenix), Johnny Cash (Glastonbury) Worst concerts: Pop Will Eat Itself (Sheffield around 96 just before they split), Janes Addiction (Doncaster Dome), 50 Cent (Leeds - was bottled off), Metallica (Milton Keynes Big Day Out) Am currently working my way through the most recommended albums of the 80s (600 left to go) before starting on the 90s (~1700!). I got all the various top 50s from the various music magazines (from rocklistmusic.co.uk) and compiled them into one list that I'm crossing off as I work through them. Lots of good stuff that I was too young to hear at the time. Some absolute crap too that has aged badly. But it keeps my ears busy while I'm working...
Grew up in the 60's but had older cousin who bought records. beatles. Stones Donovan etc. which then passed to me. played on a single size record player and loved it. then saw Bolan and mi world changed. this was my generation's turn. bought Electric Warrior and played it to death bt had had a slight flirtation with a guy singing Space Oddity by the name of David Bowie....rest is Ziggy history. got into Genesis. northern soul and rock. 65 nah and still luvin it..shout out to the lass from pickety witch....hmmm
Got given a C90 tape in 1988 side 1 - Squirrel and G man 24 hour party people plastic face can’t smile whites out. side 2 - bummèd The first 2 happy Monday’s albums literally changed my life.
radcliffe on radio 5 was immense, I was only listening to a charlatans session playing tracks off some friendly I’ve got from his show around 89/90 ish yesterday peel was good obviously but was some times a bit too left field for me back in the 80’s, it took time for me to grow and learn with peel a little bit.
I was brought up on Elvis and Radio 4. My best mates brother loaned me a Best of Bowie and hearing Space Oddity for the first time was a game changer. Another one was a friend of my Mum lent me one of the early Now thats what I called music albums. It contained 'What difference does it make' by The Smiths and I played it to death. A lifelong passion for music followed and I am still continually striving for new stuff
My first musical memory was listening to my parents' Abba records in the living room through headphones. First record I ever bought was Shaddap You Face by Joe Dolce Music Theatre when I was 8. My brother wanted to buy Adam and the Ants' Kings of the Wild Frontier. We were shopping in Barnsley as a family so if my dad gave my brother money for that, he'd have to give me the same and that was what I chose. It was a couple of years later, when my brother went to high school that I had my musical awakening. He came home with a copy of The Jam's compendium Snap! From there I found mod, ska, glory boys type stuff which saw me through the early 80's. As that era fizzled out, I struggled for a couple of years to find music that grabbed me. The Madchester scene of my late teens didn't inspire but I heard Lucretia by The Sisters Of Mercy on TOTP one day and that did. So onto The Mission, Bauhaus, Fields of the Nephilim and some non goth but fringe stuff like Ghost Dance, New Model Army, Carter USM and Half Man Half Biscuit. I find new music nowadays mostly via Spotify suggestions based on what I tend to listen to, so keep broadening my horizons to an extent but Jim Bob (ex Carter), NMA and HMHB account for my last three album purchases
I still try to listen to Riley now. Was a lot more when I was working away - I'd get back to the hotel and put it on for the first half hour before going for lunch. But not so much recently. Need to get back into that habit.
stone cold classic. Featuring Beefheart. The live LP Zappa & Beefheart from 1975, "Bongo Fury" is also a classic in my book, if you like Beefheart that is...
From your username I assume Kraftwerk would be in there? Computer World is my favourite of theirs, but I like a lot of the more techno orientated remixes too.
"Trout Mask Replica" was another album that was played in our English lesson, to much amusement and general hilarity...
Music was always around when I was a kid. My dear old mum was a club singer in the 50's (girl trio- The Darryl Sisters.) They came second on Opportunity Knocks... allegedly because one of the other girls rejected Hughie Green's advances. Teenage years was into The Jam, Madness and Two Tone, then found the protoGoth band Bauhaus, they were brilliant in concert. Always had a liking for electronic music- Kraftwerk, anybody heard of a band called Faust? Way out in left-field they were. My cousin and her mates used to dance in the living room to the Sylvester album Mighty Real. I still have this and listen to it. Since the 80s dance music has largely been my thing. I was in Japanese Whispers one night, I remember the DJ played this amazing record. I was transfixed. I had to have it- the DJ said it was a white label from the States and I wouldn't be able to get it. Casa Disco thought different. It was 'Love can't turn around' by Farley Jackmaster Funk. Darryl Pandy's voice on this still gives me goosebumps. Listen to lots of different stuff now. Still like EDM- Faithless, Leftfield, Orbital etc. but I cast my net wide- recently in a fantastic beach bar in Ibiza I discovered Mambo Ska !?! Spotify Ska Cubano if you're intrigued, the track 'Tequila' can't fail to raise a smile.
He was a brilliant poet…. Avant garde but obscure. I think it’s on Trout Mask “ A squid eating dough in a polyethelene bag is fast and bulbous…. Got me “
I could write a massive essay on my life in music. Early likes were Bowie & T Rex, but punk, 2 tone & the mod revival, followed by post punk was a starter. I was also getting into Bob Dylan, the Doors, Stones, Kinks, Velvet Underground & bits of northern soul that the older lads liked. Post punk bands like PIL, Joy Division, early U2, Banshees, Bunnymen & then US bands like the Replacements, R.E.M., Minutemen, Pere Ubu, Husker Du were big. Also a lot of the burgeoning indie scene. Bands like the Go-Betweens, Felt, Smiths & Talking Heads, who I only got into in the 80's. Later Public Enemy, NWA, house music. Pixies / Sonic Youth / Pale Saints then... Then Stone Roses / Mondays / Inspirals / Suede / Massive Attack. Then to acid jazz & more house music. Blur did "Modern Life Is Rubbish" & me & my mate Chris, who I'd been in bands with since around '86 got back together & we were doing Britpop about 2 years before it got big. The Real People from Liverpool were an influence, along with the obvious references of Beatles / Kinks / Jam. I did the band up to 95 & we played with some fairly big bands of the time, like Longpigs (Richard Hawley), Shed 7, Dodgy, Pele, etc... Have to say I was a lot of fun, but by then I was hitting 30 & spending a month in the back of a Ford Transit was wearing thin. I went to Leeds Uni in 96, as I lived in Hyde Park. I ran a record / CD shop 2-3 days a week in term time & pretty much full time in holidays. Started selling records & CDs on the web in '96 & had a record shop later for a few years, till things went tits up. Late 90's was everything from DJ Shadow, loads of drum & bass, Pavement, Sparklehorse and a growing interest in leftfield jazz & krautrock bands like Can, Kraftwerk, Amon Duul II, etc.. Started DJing for a living in 2006, but was playing bars & backroom sets at techno nights from around 2002. The only time I haven't made a living out of DJing was during lockdown, when I was on UC for a bit, but then briefly reinvented myself as an IT recruiter for my brother's company. I jacked it in when things got back to normal, but big thanks to him for helping me out. Since then there has been so much great stuff I get into, but non of it can be categorised. I can fairly much DJ any genre of music pretty well, but I'm mostly an agent for lots of other DJs now. I'm 57 and I like my home turntable & borrowing 3 dogs off a friend of mine to go on excursions in the woods. Music is always a journey. I can now get into things I never thought possible when I was a youth. I'm 50% a jazz head, but pretty challenging jazz. Coltrane meets the Contortions. Link below for the latter to see the punk / jazz connection. Sonic Youth always played Coltrane before going on. I met Thurston Moore a few years ago at Walthamstow Jazz Festival. Ginger Baker & Tony Allen, both now dead were headliners & he did a half our set of improvised feedback with a jazz drummer, before working the cloakroom & saying he liked real ale.... I doubt many people will like it. When I'm DJing I work with what people want, not what I want, which I genuinely find educating & fun. There is a bit of "My Favourite Things" too. I'm really non judgemental about music these days. I have my music I love at home, but I like sharing other people's influences / ideas. I'm surprised no one has mentioned Eddie Van Halen on this thread for example... I live in a one bedroom flat & my record collection is currently insured for £50k. Other contents & fittings 10k.
I often drop "Du Hast" at the right gig. Like a lot of the industrial scene TBH. It's harder to say what I don't like. Elevator music sometimes even can make me chuckle.
