About

I began collecting music in 1970, when I was eleven years old – possibly to make up for the fact I’m not much cop at singing or playing an instrument!  When I last counted, I had around 1,500 CDs, a few hundred vinyl LPs (currently in store) sadly only a few dozen cassettes and singles remaining, and increasingly, a growing quantity of material that exists only as computer files.  This may not  be a lot by some folks’  standards – but it represents the soundtrack to my life, reminding me of people, places and experiences. I reckon a blog might be an interesting way to share why my collection has given me so much pleasure – and promote the work of a lot of talented musicians in the process.

When I first started buying records, I had to save up pocket money or wages from my Saturday job to buy an LP – and later it was a toss-up between buying a record or going to a gig.  Nowadays I’m lucky enough to be able to do both (I still prefer to buy CDs rather than downloads) so there may be the occasional live review that sneaks in, otherwise I’ll try and post about items in my collection in a variety of ways. Most of the time I’ll feature individual albums, but if the mood takes me, I might look at years, or labels or artists or songs.

Another thing that’s changed since I was in my teens and twenties, is that we used to swap stuff between friends  – or tape stuff for each other . That meant I could listen to bands like Wishbone Ash, Black Sabbath or ELP without actually shelling out! Nick Hornby’s novel High Fidelity captures something of that era (especially the making of compilation tapes for girlfriends)  but I’m still a sucker for a good recommendation – so send me your ideas!

Since musicians need to earn a living, the only links to audio files will be ones which the artists have made available. Cover images are generally lifted from the internet or self-scanned on the basis that this is non-commercial  ‘fair usage’. I’m happy to credit the copyright owner though if that’s you.

Thanks for stopping by – I hope you will find some ideas about what to listen to next – or that some of these posts re-awaken good memories for you. You’re very welcome to leave me your comments or your own recommendations.

Alastair

Northampton, England.