Instant replay
All this discussion about The Monkees over at Planet Mondo reminded me of that fine day when the very first Monkees CD found its way into my collection – I bought it as a gift for myself the afternoon I handed in my final year dissertation. A cheery, silly and brilliant pop album seemed a perfect way to mark the moment.
It wasn’t the first time that I had treated myself to some exciting new item of music to mark an ‘auspicious’ occasion in my life. Other notable purchases include:
- Culture Club Colour by Numbers – my 9th birthday and the first time that I had bought something that my parents very clearly didn’t like; it felt risky but it felt great (1984)
- The Bangles A Different Light – the first day of the loooong summer holidays before I went to the big scary high school in the centre of town (1986)
- The B52s ‘Love Shack’ – to commemorate our history class’s week-long excursion to Adelaide (1989)
- Patti Smith Horses – my first holiday away with a friend and, although we were kipping over at my aunties, it was without our parents (1990)
- The Church Heyday – I bought this the day I got my HSC/A level equivalent/final year exam results (1992)
- Teenage Fanclub Thirteen – celebrating my return to Sydney after Christmas at home with the folks and knowing that this was now home (1994)
- Ruben Gonzales Introducing – the day I left Australia; I bought this in sunny Sydney that morning and was listening to it as I watched Australia recede into the background from the plane window (2000)
- Cream Disraeli Gears – the day I got my first job overseas in Glasgow and figured that it was now safe to start spending all my money again on music (2000)
Still to this day, whenever I play any of these records I’m instantly transported back to the day I bought it. And mostly, that’s a good thing.
July 14th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Your Culture Club was my Sex Pistols when I brought home a copy of NMTB – very weary looks from the parents. Other occasions are ..
Having a record player in my bedroom – bought two singles The Stranglers Nuclear Device and The Damned – Just Can’t Be Happy Today
On getting my first CD player the first ‘Compact Discs’ bought were The Damned Machine Gun Etiquette and Roxy Music’s first album
During an art college trip to the V and A, I bolted off to Kensington High St and bought Iggy and The Stooges Raw Power
And I’ve just grabbed Head Hands And Feet’s fab single Warming Up The Band for a snip (£5! List price is £25)on the bay in celebration of my portable turntable..
PS thanks for the linky
July 14th, 2009 at 11:26 am
My sister left home when I was eleven and left me her copies of ‘Hunky Dory’ and ‘Pin Ups’ (oh and Leo Sayer’s ‘Silverbird’, but let’s gloss over that.). For years they were all I had, so I played them to death on my parents’ radiogram.
My first purchase, when I too got a record player in my room, was ‘New Boots and Panties’ which I alternately turned up, to annoy my Mum, or turned down, to spare her if I was feeling merciful.(1978)
I had ‘New Gold Dream’ when I got to Uni and played it constantly at night, on my huge headphones, when I was homesick.(1982)
I bought ‘Let’s Dance’ by David Bowie the day after NC chucked me, and played ‘Modern Love’ very defiantly to make myself feel better.(1983)
A friend bought me ‘Neither Washington nor Moscow’ by the Redskins as a graduation present. Very apt for the times.(1985)
I bought a dodgy cassette of ‘In Utero’ in Bangkok on my first trip to the Far East, and listened to it all over Thailand until it snapped.(1994)
The first CD I succumbed to (having resisted the format for years) was Kraftwerk’s ‘The Mix’ (held out until 1998!)
And others too numerous to mention…
July 14th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Guess how old you two are then with all that classic punk and new wave!
It’s very nice of you, PM, to compare the impact of Culture Club to that of the Sex Pistols. I can just imagine the reaction if I’d bought that one home at such a young and tender age… Were you buying Machine Gun Etiquette for the first time or replacing vinyl?
And I’m not suprised in the least that you like Kraftwerk ISBW. They have a song called Tour de France, do they not?
My first CD was an Australian pop throwaway item by Kate Cebrano from the late 80s. F-C would probably like it.
July 14th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Don’t seem to celebrate with tunes in the same way (I frankly don’t need that much of an excuse!)
I bought the wedding presents first Lp the day all the trees blew down on my first weekend of college all the yah’s at my collge knew I was odd from then on.
Then bought Pinky Blue by Altered images to celebrate the following summer.
When I got my first cd player my first cd was Revolver for some reason.
I did strangely buy a joy division flexi disk at my Grannies Golden wedding!! (we didn’t play it) But we also sneaked off to have our picture taken outside the Housemartins house!!
July 14th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
I missed punk by a couple of years, but became obsessed when I hit my teens. Parents weren’t too happy so unlike most teenage boys hid punk singles not pin-ups under my bed..
And yes replacing vinyl with both The Damned and Roxy albums.
Another one is my parents used to have a newsagents in Billericay (ISBW probably drove past it tons of times as it was on the Brentwood Rd). When I first ran the shop while they were away (aged 17) had a mad spend up with the wages, bought Revolver (better than expected), Sgt Pepper (not as good as expected), Iggy Pop Lust For Life and Grace Jones Nightclubbing
July 14th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Ooh what a great idea for a post. Some of your choices have similar resonance for me as well… the Bangles LP with that track on was in the ‘leather effect’ WH Smith record case that I lugged onto a train from Newcastle taking me away from home to the impossible excitement of Wolverhampton Polytechnic… and the Wedding Present’s first LP (as mentioned by BTLP) reminds me of hearing the news during that first term that half the trees in the country had been blown down…
Coincidentally Radio 2 has just this moment started playing The Pretenders ‘Stop Your Sobbing’ which I spent the last of my grant money on at Dudley market, certainly in the same term and possibly in the same week.
July 14th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
BLTP, was that in 1987? Wasn’t ‘the big storm’ that year? And is the Housemartin’s house on your Flickr stream? It sounds like a must-see!
PM, there is nothing better than blowing all your wages on records when you’re young is there? I had quite a few splurges… my parents were so tut-tutting about it all I had to get my friend to buy them for me on the side too.
Hello Jonathan and welcome. I think you’ve confirmed that the Wedding Present (George Best was it?) must have co-incided with ‘the big storm’. Funnily enough I was in the UK at that very time visiting my grandparents. I associate it though with [cough..] Rick Astley. One of the best things about music is how it is so wrapped in moments and memories and can just take you *instantly* to other places – it’s a bit of a recurring theme round here…
July 14th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Love the Monkees too, and own (and still regularly play) all their albums.
Isn’t it funny the nostalgia we have for buying music isn’t it? I have a (too) large music collection, and you can pretty much plot my life by it. Even now I can remember when I bought most of them, and have vivid memories of playing many of them over and over again… Sneaking in NMTB is also a memory of mine, but not half as bad as sneaking in the 7″ Somethin Else by the Pistols with the notorious ‘Friggin in the Riggin’ on the B-Side…
How about the early copies of Kings of the Wild Frontier album with the A4 booklet inside… man that was cool!
P
July 15th, 2009 at 12:40 am
Like Mondo, I had a teenage obsession with punk. PIL’s first album, Joy Division, Pistols etc. Only Pistols record I could find was the dead horse flogging affair, Flogging A Dead Horse, so it had to do.
In Utero & Holy Bible were college, & then I was kidnapped by aliens and started buying Beach Boys albums. Nothing wrong with that as such, but it became a tad obsessive…….
I could soundtrack my life very easily, but pinning music down to specific events or times is a harder task.
July 15th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Piley, my life is constant nostalgia these days (you might have noticed from this blog!) – heaven knows what I’ll be like when I’m 70. I’ll be sitting there weeping over that Gary Moore 7″ I bought in 1989 and that Neds Atomic Dustbin CD from 1991… those were the days…
Do you really have all of the Monkees albums?! Do you have ‘Instant Replay’? If so, is it as bad as ‘people’ say? (I feel a bit false now naming a blog post after a record I haven’t actually heard…but it seemed apt)
Ill Man, Holy Bible is a top record, one that I still play regularly (well, when I’m in the mood for some angst anyway). I rarely listen to Joy Division these days. It’s not something you just feel like slapping on when you’re doing the washing up of an evening is it? And nothing wrong with a bit (or even a lot of) the Beach Boys. It’s probably healthier than too much Nirvana and Manics misery.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Oddly enough, I frequently cook and wash up to Joy Division. Then there’s a Dead Kennedy’s mix on the other side of that tape. =D
July 15th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Oooh, record associations. Love Shack takes me instantly back to a hall of residence in Derby and the room shared by Deborah and Marianne where I spent an inordinate amount of time. It was followed on a tape with Fairground Attraction’s Perfect and Sinead’s Nothing Compares 2U. Memorable purchases would include…
The Wonder Stuff – Hup. First album I bought when away from home at College. I then received a copy of it in the post the next day from my brother who assumed I wouldn’t be able to afford music on my grant.
David Lee Roth – Just Like Paradise (single) – first CD I ever bought.
Eric Clapton – Unplugged. First album I bought for the lady who is now MrsB.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I think Brer BLTP has the Housemartin stalker session shots t I’ll have to see if he’s got it.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Ill Man, so what’s your favourite washing up tune? Atrocity Exhibition?! ;) Actually, haven’t we had this conversation before…
Hello Simon and welcome to you too. I have a lot of respect for anyone who has fond memories of the B52s, the Stuffies AND David Lee Roth. I got a copy of Hup first year away from home too, but I think my purchase was inspired by the recent release of Never Loved Elvis – which I think I actually prefer.
BLTP, yes, track ‘em down and I’m hoping that this WAS actually in Hull.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:41 am
I think we might have…..”~
And no, it’s Isolation….. ;)