My Interests No 2 Music - The early years
Music is my biggest interest in life. My awakening to music happened in June 1972. I was 8 years old at the time. I liked some Glam Rock like Sweet, T Rex and Gary Glitter (Yes I know! I saw him live 3 times before he was exposed) but I did not own any records at all. Then one Thursday evening as I was watching Top Of The Pops (this was in TOTPs heyday when 20 million people watched it) Alice Cooper appeared with School's Out to blast the Donny Osmonds and David Cassidys clean away. This was proper rock not watered down, poppy Glam Rock. Alice's band all had waist length hair and wore wild gold and silver clothes and in the middle stood Alice. Platform boots, leather flares, blouse (it looked too girlie to be a shirt) unbuttoned to his navel, Clockwork Orange eye make up smeared on, shaggy perm and he was waving a sword round. This was my musical epiphany. The following Saturday I bought my first ever record, the single School's Out. After that I bought the Alice Cooper albums Killer and Love It To Death. Nearly 35 years later I am still addicted to buying albums. And I still love Alice despite the awful albums he released in the 80s and early 90s. See when it comes to music I am not fickle. In fact I must be obsessed. If there is an artist/band I really like and they have released loads of albums, I will still buy their albums that I know are awful, just so that I have everything they have recorded. I must have 2 dozen albums by Alice, Santana and Tangerine Dream that I bought, knowing beforehand that they were abysmal and I would probably never listen to them more than once. Perhaps I need medical help.
My 2nd great musical awakening happened in 1979 when I was 15. I went to my first ever rock concert. I went to see the German Heavy Metal band The Scorpions at Liverpool Empire. I went with my school friend John Davies the elder brother of Richie mentioned in my last Blog entry. A quick story about John and Richie. They shared a bedroom together and John had a Pink Floyd poster above his bed that Richie coveted. So John sold the poster to Richie for £2. The only difference the change of ownership had, was that the poster was moved 10 feet along the same wall to above Richie's bed. A good bit of business by John I thought. Anyway my first gig. The first thing that really shook me (literally) was the sheer volume of the music. Up til that moment I had only ever listened to music on the radio or on my parents radiogram as background music while I did my homework. Suddenly my ears were being assailed by Heavy Metal blasting out of huge speakers at 110 decibels. The other great surprise was that at the gig I saw dozens of grown men playing Air Guitar. Now I thought I was the only person who played Air Guitar and then only in the privacy of my own bedroom. OK I am lying slightly, I did not play Air Guitar. I played Air My Sister's Tennis Racquet. I took Air Racquet very seriously too. I tied a long piece of string to the racquet to act as a guitar lead. I put 2 pairs of shoes on the floor in front of me. These were my effects pedals and I often twiddled with the knobs of my radio which was switched off, imagining that I was making adjustments to my amp. I also perfected the pulling of some great 'guitarist playing a really tricky solo' faces. Ever since that first concert I have loved seeing really good bands live. I sometimes even find technically awful bands entertaining live. I can on occasion enjoy seeing a band live who's records I don't particularly like. I guess I just love music.
My 2nd great musical awakening happened in 1979 when I was 15. I went to my first ever rock concert. I went to see the German Heavy Metal band The Scorpions at Liverpool Empire. I went with my school friend John Davies the elder brother of Richie mentioned in my last Blog entry. A quick story about John and Richie. They shared a bedroom together and John had a Pink Floyd poster above his bed that Richie coveted. So John sold the poster to Richie for £2. The only difference the change of ownership had, was that the poster was moved 10 feet along the same wall to above Richie's bed. A good bit of business by John I thought. Anyway my first gig. The first thing that really shook me (literally) was the sheer volume of the music. Up til that moment I had only ever listened to music on the radio or on my parents radiogram as background music while I did my homework. Suddenly my ears were being assailed by Heavy Metal blasting out of huge speakers at 110 decibels. The other great surprise was that at the gig I saw dozens of grown men playing Air Guitar. Now I thought I was the only person who played Air Guitar and then only in the privacy of my own bedroom. OK I am lying slightly, I did not play Air Guitar. I played Air My Sister's Tennis Racquet. I took Air Racquet very seriously too. I tied a long piece of string to the racquet to act as a guitar lead. I put 2 pairs of shoes on the floor in front of me. These were my effects pedals and I often twiddled with the knobs of my radio which was switched off, imagining that I was making adjustments to my amp. I also perfected the pulling of some great 'guitarist playing a really tricky solo' faces. Ever since that first concert I have loved seeing really good bands live. I sometimes even find technically awful bands entertaining live. I can on occasion enjoy seeing a band live who's records I don't particularly like. I guess I just love music.
posted by GUS at 5:55 PM
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