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I just love my music..
My Early Days:
Since an early age, my mother used to play vinyl LP's such as Cliff Richard, The Kinks, Jim Reeves, The Shadows & The Beach Boys!!! I had my own small collection of Vinyl including 'The Muppets', 'Nursery Rhymes' and 'The Smurfs' - hardly counts as music, I hear you say.....My first 'record player', was a toy really, but none-the-less it played music, if a little quietly and not always at the right speed (it ran on batteries). My first real music I aquired was 'Don't Stand So Close to me' - by the Police, and 'Stand & Deliver' by Adam & The Ants. This must have been around '81, making me about 10...These were either given, permanently lent or swapped (but not stolen), from my best friend at the time, Richard. We both lived in a council estate in Beacon Heath in Exeter. Other things we were into at the time, included skateboards, marbles, recording car registration numbers, and early electronic games - see my NEW page coming soon for some childhood memories......
My Collection Starts:
It seemed like an age, just having a collection of 2 singles, and I was approaching the age of pocket money and paper rounds. The first single that I actually bought was 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' by Bonnie Tyler. This is a classic 80's song, with a great B-side too, 'Take Me Back'. It cost the staggering amount of 80p - new! Apart from the high street stores, I had two favourite haunts to acquire more music - Caterpilla Records and the American guy at St. Georges Market (who is still there as I write (6/7/01). Caterpilla used to be located in North Street, Exeter, a small shop cram packed with 2nd hand music of all imaginable artists. Now the great thing about this shop, was that they had a sale on quite often. Having only a small amount of money to spend, this was an ideal opportunity to add more vinyl as cheaply as 1pence!!! I slowly built a collection of both 45's and 33's, centred around Adam & The Ants, whilst exploring other genres too. I remember about this time, buying a copy of the Beatles Red album for 2p at my school 'bring and buy sale'. At some stage I aquired a new proper record player, for Christmas, my sister, Sharon also got one at the same time. We used to compete with each other much to the annoyance of the parents.
My first CD's: I remember saving very hard to buy my first CD HI-FI System. It cost me just £200, was 1990 I think, was made by 'Proline', OK - so not the best make in the World, but it looked quite classy for it's time - black toughened plastic and an orange digital display. It looked so good, that I had to take a photograph of it (I'll find it soon and put it here). The CD was an amazing advance in technology, and I rushed out to buy a couple of 2nd hand ones from Caterpilla. At this time there wasn't a huge 2nd hand market, so choice was limited - I settled for Paul McCartneys' Greatest Hits and Fleetwood Macs' Behind The Mask. These albums were played to death for a while, then I started expanding my collection slowly, however they still remain firm favourites. My New Sound Systems The proline lasted me for a few years, until grew tired of it, and eventually sold off to a friend. I had started to collect a few seperate components, most of them bought second hand. This meant I could build up a great system for very little money. I had an old silver Pioneer AMP, which could connect 4 speakers. It certainly pumped out the sound. I connected a pair of Wharfdale speakers which I somehow managed to only pay £1 for, an Aiwa Twin Tape Deck (with blue graphics!), a Genexa 10 band Graphic Eqalizer, and a huge Amstrad (yes, I know) 'Executive' tuner. I continued to use the Proline CD player, until in about '93 when I aquired a Philips CD-i unit. I must have been one of the first to buy the CD-i, mainly to play Golf on. It was a cool CD player too, with on screen graphics, and a memory which could tell you the names of the CD's you have played last, and when! It also plays Video CD's and Photo CD's too! I'm ashamed to say I paid £500 for this (with a free Enclyclopedia), plus £150 for a Digital Video plug in, and what's it worth today? hmmm.... any offers? I also fell victim to be the first in Exeter to buy a Philips CDR870 (recordable audio deck), and paid £500 for the privalidge.
My CD Collection NOW!
Quantity isn't always everything, but I do have a lot of CD albums. Whilst I won't admit to liking every album, there's something for everyone, the choice just gets more difficult. With a collection of this size, it's essential to have them all catalogued, so I can locate a specific track on demand - this took me several months on and off to complete! Although varied, the collection boasts a large number of Reggae, 80's classics, Rock and Female artists. In addition there is classical, 60's, 70's, 90's compilations, blues, electronic & ambient, jazz - and every artist from Abba to ZZ Top.
My Top 20 Albums This was a hard selection, as I have so many great albums. Click HERE to see my favourites. My Top 100 Tracks I like so many songs, but thought it would be great to try and record my all time favourites here on this site. Most will have a reason, some memory maybe connected to them, so it's a very personal opinion. This has been a time consuming task - click HERE to see the list!
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