One Touch/ Sugababes (2000): Albums of my Life: an A-Z

  being aware of the single 'Overload' and not immediately loving it, but knowing that it felt a bit different to other girl groups. I'm imagining that I saw the music video because it is definitely a factor that set the tone of who these young girls were (and they were young, only 15 and 16 years old). The video is shot on a plain white background and pans across to reveal the girls in mid and close-up shots, and they just look so fresh, natural and 'normal'. It doesn't surprise me to read that they were formed in 1998 by the same manager as the group, All Saints, because they had this cool edge and their lack of frills and girliness appealed to me at that age. Also, the fact that they were about the same age as me at the time made them feel relatable.

I'm not sure about when I took the plunge and purchased the CD, but I did and I got it on vinyl last year-- testament to what a great album it is. When we were teenagers my dad would let us load up a CD into the car's player and in hindsight, it strikes me how much of a champion he was for us being into music because he always took an interest in what we listened to. Even though his music taste lay in the 70s for the most part, he (and my mum) have always been open to new music providing it had substance and musicianship to it. I recall him liking some of what he heard with this album, only a brief comment, but it was clear that he recognised the groups' skilful harmonies, something that I think makes the Sugababes a  standout group.

Kill the Wolf/ Matt Berry (2013): Albums of my Life: an A-Z

   having a family barbecue back home one Summer. It must have been 2008, a truly significant year for me. I was due to start my new job, beginning the career I had trained for; a few months before I had experienced a tough break up; I was living alone back in Hampshire and getting to grips with it all. At the barbecue, my brother put on this unusual prog album complete with a rich-voiced narrator overlaying some of the tracks. That voice belonged to comic actor, Matt Berry, and the album was 'Opium'.

I had loved the IT Crowd and it really tickled me that the hilarious 'Reynholm' would suddenly manifest himself onto an experimental prog album in our garden in Kent! The music was oddly infectious and I found myself wanting to hear more when I was back in Hampshire, so I hastily bought a copy of the album on CD. As my interest and love of this album grew, my fascination with Matt did too. I sought out more of his more obscure comedy work, from 'Garth Marenghi's Darkplace' (a parody 80s style hospital drama/ horror series) to 'AD/BC: A Rock Opera' (a comedy musical written by Berry and Richard Ayoade). In addition, I was charmed by his real life, low key and humble persona in interviews-- a far cry from his larger than life characters. 

Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants/ Stevie Wonder (1979): Albums of my Life: an A-Z

  hearing this album for the first time and finding it very different to the Stevie Wonder music I had previously been listening to. I found Stevie as an older teen and purchased a CD of some of his love songs. Interestingly, that gateway into Stevie's music had me hear slightly more obscure tracks than his chart hits, with 'Golden Lady', 'Ribbon in the Sky' and 'You and I' featuring as some of my faves. With this album, years ago I may have skipped through my CD copy to mine the tracks with Stevie's wonderful vocals (as opposed to the instrumentals which punctuate this album), but with hindsight, I needed to hear it as a whole piece of work. The joy of vinyl is that we do just that.

Dancing Machine/ The Jackson 5 (1974): Albums of my Life: An A-Z

...watching 'Moonwalker' as a kid. I was a Michael Jackson fan from a young age and soon got to liking the Jackson 5 too. The first CD I ever owned was Michael Jackson's 'Ben' at 9 years of age. I had cassettes of some Michael Jackson albums and some Jackson 5 ones too from Boot fairs that we would visit on a Sunday as a family. My dad would always like to find bargains and any time we would see a Michael Jackson tape he would get it for me because he knew I loved his music. I realise that not only do kids today miss out on the thrill of physically owning an album and playing it over and over because what they own is the limit of what they can listen to; but also that not every parent is as nurturing of their child's interests as mine were.

Back to 'Moonwalker'-- there was a brief part of a montage of Michael's earlier music which featured him dancing with a robot. The small clip featured a section of 'Dancing Machine' and it always stayed in my mind, but I didn't recognise the song. Later in life I heard the song and, of course, loved it. 

'Dancing Machine, the album, came to my consciousness most probably in one of my returns to Jackson's earlier music after one of my many hiatuses. I found him at 7 or 8 years old when 'Dangerous' was out. I then returned to him in my late teens and early 20s, finding a few new Jackson 5/ Jacksons tracks due to the internet opening up a few more avenues for music exploration. A friend from Primary school who had complimented my MJ T Shirt at a school disco became a good buddy to me at this age. He was probably the only person who I've been able to muse with about about my devotion to Michael Jackson's back catalogue and feel like there was a shared degree of enthusiasm. I re-kindled a love of  MJ materiaI at this point; I'd love to reconnect on our shared love of music one day.

Anywhere/ New Musik (1981): Albums of my Life: An A-Z

 

 ...being young, six or seven maybe, and my parents always played music loud. Mum would play music whilst ironing, or just to let off steam herself-- having two small children around the house and all the chaos we entailed was probably no picnic at times! My mum played New Musik quite a bit and I although at that age it was just backdrop, it was the type of music that made me want to spin around in the middle of the carpet until I was dizzy and had to crash land on the sofa (Lionel Ritchie's 'Dancing on the Ceiling' had, heck, still has, the same effect-- in a good way!) It is music like this that laid dormant in my psyche for years, only for a craving for it to emerge years later as an adult. It's only as time passes that you reflect on the music your parents listened to and how it has impacted your own taste. My parents' choices, that were once, at best, catchy, and at worst, 'annoying', are in hindsight, pretty damn cool. Not least because they span a few genres and niches. I'm grateful for the passion for music they instilled in us by osmosis.

New Additions to my Vinyl Collection, January 2018

Since my first vinyl collection post last April I've acquired some new editions to my collection- both newly pressed and second hand. It's quite hard to group my new records in the same way as I did before ('classic'/'iconic' albums vs. random finds) as I have found some popular, classic albums by chance when out and about. A gem of a place for good prices on second hand vinyl is a shop called Boiler Room in Poole, Dorset. 

A Photo a Day #190

Vinyl Store

More on the background of this photo in another post. Yes, I went vinyl shopping a few weeks ago!

New Year Project: A Photo a Day, #1

Given the name of the blog, it seems apt to present my 'Photo a Day' project on here. For me, this is an ambitious proposal, but something that could be a great way to record my photography experiments this year. So here we go: Photo #1

Spin

1/15         F1.8         ISO 1250 My new record player-a Christmas gift- playing Back to Black. Taken in a poorly lit room on a miserably dark Winter evening; whilst anticipating going back to work after the Christmas break, I amped up the warmth a bit to cheer me up!