' Old Peculiar is off? Better make it a
pint of Summer Lightning and not too much head, young lady!’
Born on 23rd December 1957 in
London, I was just about old enough to see the changes in the music scene from
the fifties crooners whose material was well known largely due to the musical
films of the era (Half a Sixpence, Summer Holiday etc) but also including Billy
J Kramer, Frank Ifield et al, to the upcoming change in style and tempo that was
The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Kinks. Incidentally, the first
piece of vinyl I bought was Daydream by the Lovin’ Spoonful – two
shillings and nine pence if I recall.
My early musical influence, however, was
not the pop of the day but classical music thanks to my father’s keen interest
in the genre and extensive record collection. Bach, Beethoven and Mozart were
instant hits with me as was Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite and, on the lighter
front, Paganini,
Tchaikovsky
and Johann Strauss. Of course there are too many to list but you get the
picture. I was never that enamoured with opera as I considered the melody more
enjoyable than vocals, or should I say choral works. The only exception to this
was the works of Gilbert and Sullivan because of the catchy tunes combined with
humorous lyrics and to this end I have even been to see the D’Oyly Carte in
action.
Possibly the schools I attended helped pave my way into the heady realms of
‘serious’ music; the independent fee paying schools in my early years made no
reference to the popular music of the day, concentrating instead on the great
composers; the boy’s grammar school I ended up in also concentrated on the
classics but the relatively young music master was not unknown to make the
passing reference to certain prog bands.
I bought few singles and those I did buy
were lucky to get into the top 100. The first two albums I bought were by The
Move (I’m still a Roy Wood fan) and Mungo Gerry but it wasn’t until 1972 that I
first dipped into the world of prog. I’d heard and seen Jethro Tull on the
radio and TV in the late 60’s but as soon as I heard a friend’s copy of
Aqualung I just knew I had to get it. Soon, all my pocket money was being
spent on prog albums that were being released faster than my wallet could
contend with. I bought Tubular Bells as soon as it was released before
it reached the charts. ELP, Caravan, Genesis, King Crimson, Horslips, Gryphon,
Tull, Fairport Convention and Gong soon found a home in my growing collection.
Everything stopped for Alan Freeman’s Saturday Rock Show on BBC Radio 1 (2pm to
5pm) when I soaked up the enthusiastic banter and glowed in the fact that 50 per
cent of the music played I actually had in my collection and at least 45 per
cent I wanted to get. There was no need to buy YES as I had all the tracks
etched into my skull from friends non-stop playing of various albums.
A friend and I were returning from the pub
one evening and he suggested dropping in on a friend of his for a nightcap. He
was listening to a Cheech and Chong album when we arrived which didn’t take long
to render me to tears of laughter. We were discussing music when he said he had
an album he was sure I would love and proceeded to put Camel’s The Snowgoose
on the turntable. That was a big turning point for me and to this day the music
of Camel has played a big part in my life (wish it would pay the bills though).
My cousin tried to get tickets to see The
Who perform Quadrophenia in 1973 with no luck. It wasn’t until 1974 I
was dragged to my first gig to see Santana at Birmingham Odeon. Maybe everyone
loves their first concert purely because it is their first concert but I loved
it. Soon I was going to Birmingham on a regular basis to see Camel, Caravan,
Horslips, Renaissance, Peter Gabriel and even Rainbow. My biggest regret was
missing Genesis The Lamb tour. A friend had queued for tickets the best
part of a day to find as soon as he had the ticket office in his sights that all
had been sold. Now, I could have got tickets from the students union but I
refused to pay the additional £1 they imposed out of principle – it was almost a
third of the ticket price – so didn’t get to see the Gabriel line up. I managed
to finally see Pink Floyd on the Animals tour in 77 in Stafford
(incidentally or should I say allegedly, I’m fairly sure that Ben Elton was on
the same coach as me though he most likely would not wish to be known as a Floyd
fan).
When I married in the early 80’s and had
weaned my wife off Motown and onto prog, the genre was on the decline big time.
We tried Marillion but were not overly impressed. Camel had all but disappeared
which left Steve Hackett, Tull and Fairport (and The Enid) and we saw them
whenever we could. Of the new bands coming onto the scene, It Bites was a
breath of fresh air as were All About Eve. The pop of the 80’s was quite
diverse; Ian Dury, the Stranglers, Madness were great, and even Nick Kershaw and
Duran Duran had their moments.
My hope for the future of prog arrived
shortly before my divorce. Someone at Central Television (now Carlton) came up
with the idea of getting prog bands like Caravan and Steve Hackett to perform a
one off gig at their Nottingham studio and broadcast the performance under the
Bedrock banner. Unfortunately a change in the TV station’s personnel
resulted in the cancellation of the series. However, this triggered a mini
revival and we travelled the tedious journey to Norwich in 1991 to see the
classic Caravan line up complete with the great Richard Sinclair perform In
The Land Of Grey And Pink, an album I have religiously played at least once
per month since 1973. In the meantime, Camel had a new album, the first since
1984.
After my divorce, I decided to search out
some new music that inevitably resulted in the birth of the Hairless Heart
Herald after meeting Chris and Danny.
I like complex and emotional music whatever
the genre be it blues, jazz, hard rock,
classical, prog rock, psychedelia, folk or a combination. I try and keep an
open mind. Not to do so can mean missing out on something rather good. In fact
anything that requires some grey matter to try and reconcile the strange beat to
the melody invariably gets my vote. My tastes tend to veer on the jazzier side
of music much of the time, but I’ve also been known to delve into heavier and
newer music such as Black Sabbath, Doves, Coldplay, Zero7 etc.
I have an
extensive CD/vinyl collection so to list my favourite albums would be extremely
hard. You have only to see the Reviews section of this site to see what I have
enjoyed this year alone; Sphere³, Galahad, Graham Greene, Raimundo Roduflo, Big
Big Train, Hostsonaten, Quadesh – the list is endless. If you want a peak at my
shortlist of timeless (and not so timeless) classics read on>>>
