I've blown my 'Buy no music this year' promise already

Last night I watched 'Footloose' on Film4. I didn't want to. I had 'Gangster No1' on Bluray sitting by the player but my better half pulled such a face when I told her about the film, I knew me and 'Gangster' would have to wait for another night to be alone.

So, the better half scanned through the channels and 'Footloose' was starting on Film4. I started watching without the help of my iPhone or MacBook and slowly got sucked into it. Kevin Bacon dancing and a thin Chris Penn dancing badly. ( I didn't realise it was Chris Penn when I was a kid.) Anyway, after the really cheesy 'dancing in the warehouse' bit I realised that the tall blond bird was Lori Singer. She was the cello player in 'The Kids from Fame' who couldn't sing for toffee.

The music in Footloose was pretty good but not as good as the music from 'Fame' and then the 'Kids from Fame'. Apart from 'Footloose' and 'Let's Hear it for the Boys' none of the other music from the film evoked any 'musical memories' for me. Both songs reminded me of being in middle school aged about 13 or 14, long corridors and being in the school play 'The Pirates of Penzance'. I also remembered that I preferred Fame at the time and had both the Fame and Kids from Fame soundtracks on tape when I was at school. I know I haven't thrown them away because I don't throw away music but I haven't seen them since I've been an adult. They are probably in a box at my parents house along with my Amstrad computer and lightsabre...

I logged on to Amazon and ordered both CDs for less than a tenner!!! I posted last week about not adding to my overladen CD shelves this year. What can I do? I'm weak and it's too late to change. I am genuinely excited about hearing these 2 great albums again. I only ever heard them on tape so I reckon I'm in for a proper treat. I'll post a blog about it when they arrive.

On last thing. My dad dug out some old VHS home movies the other day and we found a clip of my bedroom, my brother and my first CD player. I had only 2 CD in the entire world then and they were 'Jean Michael Jarre -  Rendevous' and 'Now 7'.

My brother and I had hysterically unbroken voices...

I'll link all the music mentioned in this post, I'm listening to 'Blissed Out' The Beloved whilst writing this.

Athlete - Tourist 2005 and a pregnant wife

This is the 2nd and the last Athlete album I have. I found the receipt in the CD Booklet. CD bought at 11.05am in 31/1/2005 from a Tescos in Sudbury in Suffolk. I also had Cereal Bars and chewing gum on the receipt.

I have a very clear recollection of the time and place of this CD. I was working for a publisher and had my first opportunity to 'work from home'. It was also the first time a company had given me a 'car allowance' instead of giving me a car. I went out and spent a load of money on an inappropriate, powerful, fast Japanese car. The petrol allowance I got per mile did not cover the actual petrol I used getting to get to and from meetings.

I also got given a company mobile phone, my first company issued one. The company were shit hot on Health and Safety and had a man come over to install as proper hands free kit in the car. The best one I have ever had in a car. I remember leaving Warwick after a meeting and chatting to my mate all the way back to Essex whilst driving. Ahh happy days and no phone bills.

This album still reminds me of my pregnant wife and the excitment of our first baby. It also reminds me of setting a home office up, looking for a proper leather chair and trying to fit a PC, Laptop, Anglepoise, Printer and a fax machine on a big desk from Ikea. The CD got a caning in the car for months. I still love it and still listen to it. There's a track on it called 'Wires' which really tied this album in with a pregnacy and a birth of a child.

My daughter was born fit and healthy and was taken home in the inappropriate Japanese sports car, however in my defense I did have the 5 door model...

Freedom 90 - George Michael and a job working for BCCI Bank in the City

I had a 'spine- tingle' tonight whilst trying to put together a Christmas present for my 2 year old son. Both kids in bed, wife watching George Michael in Concert on Sky 1 and me with a bloody huge box with an unassembled table, 7 metres of wooden train track and an allen key.

George Micheal was doing his encore and came out and asked the crowd in Earls Court what song they wanted to hear. Then the drum intro to Freedom kicked in. It took me straight back to my first job in the City. These are the thoughts it evoked.

Still living at home with parents but feeling all grown up. Spending nearly a third of my salary on a season ticket to get to and from work. Being all grown up with a packet of Malboro Reds and a brass Zippo lighter, mints and a Next Suit.

Against my parents wishes I decided to swerve University and got a job for an international bank called B.C.C.I. The Bank of Credit and Commerce International. For those of you in the know, you'll know that this bank was basically a front to launder drug cartel money, clean it and then move it around the world. It was a massive operation with branches worldwide and plenty of branches in London with lots of marble toilets and gold taps. I worked first at Leadenhall Street and then later at the Charing Cross Road Branch. It was closed down by the Bank of England in 1991

Amusingly over the years since the closure, my old branch on Charing Cross Road ( opposite Centrepoint) became an Ann Summers Sex Shop, then a Benjy's Processed Meat Sandwich Shop and now I think it's an EAT.

We used to be allowed to smoke at our desks and I had a massive BCCI hexagonal brown smoked glass ashtray on my desk. I still have this at home, in the shed as a door stop. I was given it as a leaving present by my manager when I left to become a commodities broker. Nice present!

This song evokes feelings and memories of hope and excitement. Job in the City, good prospects and the first steps of a career. When I was at BCCI I wasn't aware of any of the stuff that was going on. There was no internet, no twitter, no blogs, no mobile phones, no texting, no email. My mum and dad had read some stuff in a 'big paper' but I really didn't have a clue that the bank was already under a lot of scrutiny. I wanted to get into Trading either Currency or Soft Commodities and when an opportunity came up I left the Bank.

The whole point of this Music Memories Blog is to capture those moments as and when they occur and hearing Freedom by George Michael did just that tonight. That was nearly 20 years ago... Wow...

I still haven't finished building the table that my son's train set is supposed to sit on and I'm trying to watch a Bluray of Terminator Salvation with the sound set on bloody quiet. It's not happening...

All Saints - The Remix Album mixed by Pete Tong

This CD has an HMV sticker on the back bottom right corner with 'Normally £9.99, sale price £6.99.' I must have hunted this bargain out either in the Colchester HMV but probably the big HMV on Oxford Street. I would put the year at either 1998 or 1999. I wasn't a huge All Saints fan at the time, so I think my girlfriend who became my wife may have had an influence. I started seeing her officially in 1998. I think I've seen a 'Saints and Sinners' CD floating about too. In fact, now I'm thinking about it, I reckon I was in Soho buying dance records from Blackmarket Records and she, the future wife may have gone into HMV and found this.

I've played this today a couple of times. It's got all the big hits as dance remixes and Pete Tong has mixed all the tracks together as a continuous mix. It's a bit cheesy at the start and really only gets going with the Timberland Remix of Lady Marmalade. In the main, the style reminds me of the Speed Garage genre of house I used to like playing. The CD then slowly gets a little harder, but not too hard.

When I first heard this again today, the dubby no vocal bits of this mix CD reminded me of the stuff I used to play when I DJed out. I was playing out every week during this period of my life. The music I liked to play and listen to at home was not the stuff I played in Bars. My own tastes were a lot darker and harder. This speed garage, girly vocal happy non offensive stuff was just what the evening bar punters wanted.

I haven't heard this all the way through for years. It was really nice to hear it again, made me feel quite warm and nostalgic about my life a whole decade ago. Happy times, getting it together with my future wife and still having a laugh every weekend in town. I was still caning it a bit, which was nice.

Seeing as this CD was purchased around the time I started seeing my future wife. I might slip it on again later and see if it magically transports us both back 10 years to before the wedding, kids, responsibility, big house, sensible car, early nights, nappies, no more nights out....... She'll probably just say, turn that shite off, Coronation Street's on...

(as I'm writing this, my 4 year old daughter is playing Bejewelled 2 on my iPhone,  oh how my life has changed)

Anastacia - Not That Kind CD Rediscovered and sledging in 2nd day snow.

Let me set the scene. It's warm and toasty indoors, it's been snowing outside for a couple of days. The kids went sledging yesterday with their mum when I was at work. The snow was lovely, soft and clean and fresh. The kids loved it. Today the snow is icy, dirty and horrible. As soon as we got to the hilly field they started to moan about being cold. So I had a couple of goes on my own and then trudged home. There's no longevity with snow in the UK is there?

After lunch, my son had a little nap and my daughter wanted to make Christmas cards. I decided to give her a little musical education and pulled the next CD off my top shelf. I was hoping for something really cool I hadn't listened to in a while. A rediscovery of a hidden treasure like the Adam F 'Kaos' CD of earlier in the week. Imagine my delight when I pulled Anastacia 'Not That kind'.

I do remember this album vaguely, there's all her big hits like 'I'm Outta Love' , 'Not my Kind', 'Cowboys and Kisses'. This is playing now for the 2nd time. She's got a voice that you've got to be in a certain kind of mood for. Like Duffy or that bloody Macy Gray.

It's an okay album. I remember thinking the first time I saw her that she looked like one of the Appleton sisters from All Saints. I didn't and wouldn't have bought this album. I can only assume it belongs to the wife. If you like powerful female voices with large cheesy american production numbers, you'll enjoy this. I've made myself ( and my daughter ) listen to this twice this afternoon.

Time to press eject and hide Anastacia away again for a few years. Life's too short to listen to this too much. See ya!

The Avalanches - Since I Left You 2000 ish

Who remembers The Avalanches? I sure they were like a cartoon band before the Gorillaz. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure I remember them going up to receive an award and a couple of real Eskimos or Aborigines went up and collected on their behalf. Anyway I can't actually remember what the band look like or anything. Where were they from, anyone know?

The album itself is pretty cool, couple of stand out tracks 'Since I left You' and 'Frontier Psychiatrist'. The frontier track always makes me smile because my good friend is called 'Dexter' and he actually is 'Criminally Insane'. The video for this track was all over MTV at the time.  The style is like an old school mix tape, it's hard to define the genre, it's definitely dance beats, chilled, cartoony and well produced. If you listen to it a few times you can hear loads of samples from other records.

I reckon I got this CD from MVC in Colchester, there's a Tesco's Metro there now. That was THE music club and video store in town in them days. On listening again it reminds me of moving into my proper house, having a real open fire for the first time and a dodgy pub style Axminster carpet in the living room. The year must have been 2000, my dad said that the carpet was a top quality carpet.  I said he could have it. He declined.

The people who owned the house before us had a massive hairy Irish Wolf Thing Dog, my parents bought us a Dyson and it was amazing how much fur/hair this thing shed into that carpet. We had hair in the Dyson for nearly a year. It put us off having pets. This album also reminds me of planning our Wedding. I was trying to work out what we could save money on so I could get that horrible pub carpet replaced ASAP.

Our wedding pictures have a couple of shots of the Bride getting ready at home and she looks like she's getting ready in a pub...

Feel Robbie Williams Single and memories of Knebworth

I was on Twitter tonight and saw a post from helen_b who tweeted listening to Feel by Robbie Williams.

I put it on, I love this track. It reminds me of the era of early married life, having our own business and the summertime. Robbie was doing the Knebworth gigs and I managed to get 4 tickets. My mate and his girlfriend and me and my wife went to the gig on the Saturday night. My mate worked for Volkswagen at the time and was allowed to borrow any car at the weekends. He turned up to collect us in a Silver Beetle Cabriolet and we went to the concert in style. Hood down, beautiful Saturday afternoon, smoking cigarettes and listening to Robbie CDs driving the back roads of Hertfordshire.

We got to Knebworth, parked up and walked onto the Concert site. The site was so huge, we couldn't see the stage but had an excellent view of one of the screens. We had to queue up for everything, toilet, food, drinks, drinks tokens. I'm a man who enjoys comfort and hates being bounced about in crowds.

When Robbie came on, all was forgiven. He was amazing and when he sang 'Feel' I cried. When he finished, 100000 people piled out. I watched a moving mass of humans as far as the eye could see just moving towards the car parking fields. An amazing sight. A bit like Millennium Night in London. Like a mass exodus of biblical proportions.

I love this song. The best Robbie song in my humble opinion.

Adam F 'Kaos' a forgotten classic hip hop album from 2001

This is precisely the reason why I started this musical memories blog. I pulled this CD out of my top shelf this morning, looked at it and had no idea about it. I thought hard and the only reason I think I have this CD was the fact it was probably an insurance replacement product from the time we had our house burgled in 2000.

We'd been out all day Sunday and then came home at 8pm mildly worse for wear to our front door swinging in the wind. We entered the house obviously shit scared about what we'd find. Luckily it was only a burglary and not a 'vandalise the house and nick stuff' burglary. I remember being a bit offended because they didn't steal my tv. The policeman said that the criminals would have only have been in the house a few minutes and would have only stolen small things. They stole a VHS player, a laptop and a took a pillow case off our bed to put CD's in. I was always very anal about my CD's being in alphabetical order and the thieves took a shelf load from Pet Shop Boys to ZZ Top.

I'll always remember what the policeman said to me about getting my CDs back. He suggested I went to Cash Convertors in town and buy them back. Twat!

I put this on my CD player in my office at home this morning. Wow!!! Unbelievable!!! It sounds like a sweary hip hop version of Guru 'Jazzamatazz'. I thought this and then read the booklet notes and discovered Guru features on one of the tracks. As does De La Soul, Redman, LL Cool J and Huggy Bear. This sounds powerful, cinematic, epic and needs to be respected and played on a proper hi-fi system. So I took it downstairs for a proper loud play.

This album really sounds like a film soundtrack, quality hip hop, you can hear where The Streets, Kanye West, Gorillaz, Jay Z have got some inspiration from. This album was released in 2001 and has been sitting in the A section of my CD collection since then and today was the first time I've had a proper listen to it.

There's nothing nice about being burgled, especially when they don't even take your telly. The only upside to it was the insurance company trying to replace the list of music. I'm racking my brains for a reason why Adam F was sent to me, it must have been a 'near' replacement. I've got a few more of these in my collection and I look forward to finding them.

Naughty - Adamksi in about 1992/1993

The name of the album sums up the era in one word for me. NAUGHTY. I bought this in either 1992 or 1993. I'd left working in the City and went local. Because my job was in the next big town I decided to buy my first bachelor pad in that big town. It saved kipping on people's floors after nights out after work. I must been 21 or 22 when I bought this CD and the same age when I bought my first house.

I went out and ordered a double bed for my bedroom and I remember my Mum asking me why I had a double bed in my room. I couldn't answer that question really. Not to my mum.

Leaving home and buying my own house was an amazing feeling. Especially when having my own house meant I could do what I absolutely wanted! I was very naughty during this era. Far too naughty to write about on this blog.

Naughty is Adamski's 2nd Album, I think. There have been more but this was the last one I bought. I'm pretty sure it came from MVC in town. I'm not sure if they were a national chain. Music Video Club. You joined, got a card and then got a discount buying CD's and Videos.

Listening to this also reminds me of my 2 identical 2 seater sofas. These were the first bits of furniture I ever chose, again a huge event in my life. I remember choosing the fabric in a furniture factory in Clacton. They cost a packet because they were hand made however I sold them to a mate in 2005 so they lasted me 13 years. You get what you pay for. He's still using them. My wife of now reckoned I'd been 'naughty' with other girls on them, so made me get rid. I did have a good time then.

The standout tracks on this album are 'Born to be Alive' and 'Time Capsule'. The album has been sampled by loads of other artists. There are loads of sounds and riffs that are still being used now. I do like this album, but I love 'Musical Pharmacy' his first album. I would have played this loads when trying to entertain girls with my bad Spag Boll or Spam Curry.

This album invokes a feeling of 'freedom' and of being, a very naughty boy...

Check it out, definitely worth a listen if you are in your late 30's, enjoy proper electronic music from a pioneer of Dance.

My earliest musical memory

I often try and cast my mind back to the earliest memory I can remember involving Music.

Time after time I can hear 'Downtown' by Petula Clark. I can remember being only about maybe 4 or 5. I can see the house. It was the first house I can remember, end of a road in the outskirts of a town in Hertfordshire. We definitely lived here during the Queen's Silver Jubilee because I remember the massive street party. ( what ever happened to street parties?)

Obviously Downtown was first released in the 60's. My memories of this song are in the early to mid 1970's. I'm not sure I can remember how I heard it. I vaguely remember a green cassette in an orange opal estate car, the smell of petrol and my dad scraping ice off the windows. Did cars in the mid 70's have cassette decks in them?

Anyway, I'm racking my memory banks for another song and I can't think of anything earlier. I have a vague hint of 'Save all your kisses for me' but I can't even place that. I'm settling on 'Downtown' by Petula Clark as my earliest Musical Memory.