THIS IS A JOURNEY INTO SOUND

After the Divine Madness compilation turned me on the music of the Magnificent Seven in 1992, i set about finding their studio albums. The U.S version of Keep Moving on cassette was the first one i had, a lucky find on a local market, followed by their 1985 swansong Mad Not Mad on cd at Christmas that year.  Listening to these albums confirmed my belief that Madness were so much more than a collection of hit singles: here were a band who belonged in the same category as Ray Davies of The Kinks, Difford and Tilbrook of Squeeze, Damon Albarn of Blur and others, great English songwriters penning 3 and 4 minute tales of everyday life. The album that really opened my mind to their genius though was their 1982 masterpiece The Rise And Fall. released a few months after their first chart-topping single and album - "House Of Fun" and Complete Madness respectively - it was a startling change of direction that confused many of their fans. Where were the upbeat, poppy, "nutty...

As 1996 dawned, i'd started going to see local bands, having been introduced to a couple through Emma,  a woman at work whose boyfriend played guitar in one called Sugar And Lust, an upbeat Lemonheads-esque indie band whose ranks included a lad who'd been a couple of years above me at school, but who i'd always got on with through our mutual love of music. Emma was quite a good laugh and loved her music, and was really the only person at work i liked. Having suggested that i join her in going to see her fellas' band play, i decided it was time to end the drought in my social life, and went along. There were three bands on that night in a Nottingham pub called The Hearty Goodfellows, and although i can't remember the names of the other two, i do remember enjoying the music. Sugar And Lust were pretty good, and whilst they were never going to set the world alight their cheerful manner and obvious enjoyment in playing was infectious. The headlining band were playing a ...

As the glorious summer of 1995 turned into autumn, i found myself returning home to Hucknall, the trainee management job in Watford not having quite worked out as planned. Back at my parents house, in a job that i wasn't particularly happy with, and having lost touch with my friends here, i buried myself in music. It was a constant companion: on my walkman whilst travelling to work, on in the warehouse AT work, on at home, often whilst engrossed in just about every music weekly and monthly i could get my hands on. During the "Battle Of Britpop" that August, i hadn't taken sides as many people had - although i preferred Blurs' "Country House" over Oasis' "Roll With It", it was only marginally so, as i'd thought both songs to be not exactly their best - so i followed both bands. I don't listen to Oasis now, although i will concede that their first album is quite good, but back then i liked them as much as any other Britpop band. Whe...

1995: Around the same time that i got into Punk (past and present), i also started taking notice of the new wave of Brit indie bands who were making their names known, and who had been dubbed as "The New Wave Of New Wave" by the music press: bands influenced by Punk and New Wave, but also by The Smiths and 80's Indie, the Baggy scene of the early 90's, and classic English bands from the 60's like The Kinks and The Beatles. This movement of young bands would end up being part of the "Britpop" scene, bands who wrote and sang about British lives and concerns, who tapped into a growing boredom with the American Grunge and R'n'B that had taken over the charts and airwaves. I'd been aware of Suede and Blur, the latter of whom had transformed themselves from a Baggy/Shoegaze band into a more 60's and Mod-influenced outfit with their second album, "Modern Life Is Rubbish", which hadn't sold brilliantly but had been considered one of...

I began 1994, the year i turned 18, still largely disillusioned with the songs dominating the charts and still delving into the riches that the back pages of music had to offer. I was vaguely aware of the emerging bands who would become part of the "Britpop" scene, but they hadn't really grabbed me yet. The only new album i'd bought in the past 12 months was Pet Shop Boys mega-pop masterpiece Very, in its lego brick cd case, full of big electronic pop songs. A few things would soon give my tastes a kick: my parents having Sky TV installed, which meant i could have my fill of music through MTV: hours spent on buses travelling to and from my new job, which i filled by reading the NME, Melody Maker, Q, Select, Vox, and Record Collector, whilst listening to my walkman: and listening to The Evening Session on Radio 1, which played a wealth of Indie and Alternative music. I did start to take notice of these new bands as the year wore on, and my tastes would slowly be shaped...

This blog is about my love of music, how it's grown and changed over the years, my thoughts, feelings, memories and opinions on my lifelong passion. But it's also about much more: an undeniable feeling that i simply cannot imagine life without music. I never had an interest in sport, cars, computer games, or any of the other things that men generally get quite obsessive about. I never had many friends or girlfriends for most of my life, and so music became my friend, my companion, my way of connecting and making sense of life. I'm not sure what i would have done without it, and when i meet people who aren't bothered about or - in very rare cases - interested in music, i find it very hard to comprehend! So as part of this blog, i'm going to try and do an occasional and non-chronological series of posts about the songs and albums that really changed my life and musical tastes. I've already written about my love for Madness, what their music has meant and still mea...

June 1993. After spending the best part of a largely boring year in 6th form at school - the only highlight was meeting a fellow Madness fan at the local college - i left the world of education and began my first job at a local plastics factory. Mundane and repetitive work though it was, it provided me with some money to indulge my music obsession. Another benefit was that, siting at the side of a machine all day meant that i could listen to my walkman, something which my supervisor didn't take kindly to! By this point, i'd started building a nice little cd collection. Most of these albums were Greatest Hits and Best ofs, as i'd more or less stopped listening to new music: looking back at the singles charts for that year (i consider myself to have a pretty good memory, but the archive on the Official UK Charts website has helped give it the occasional nudge!), i can see why. Mariah Carey, M People, Meat Loaf, Dina Carroll, Take That, 2 Unlimited, Eternal. Bland, overblown s...