Astral Weeks by Van Morrison 1968

Around 1976 I was up in St. Andrews in country Victoria for a BBQ with a bunch of students from Burwood Teachers College. We were sitting outside on a beautiful summer's day drinking and just relaxing when Leon, whose house it was put this album on. I was just completely taken somewhere else. It was mesmerizing. Although familiar with a number of Van Morrison tracks in the past I'd never sat down and listened to one of his albums.
So I went out and bought the album and played it regularly for years.  It just feels good whenever you put it on. and I don't think I've ever listened to it on anything but vinyl. So when I flip it over I get the Way Young Lovers Do its a quick pick me up before settle down for the rest of the slow ride.
The house I first heard Astral weeks it was also the house Little Murders recorded Things Will Be Different in. We spent a weekend there with the nearest neighbour maybe a kilometre away, recording our debut single on a TEAC 4 track. What a fantastic gesture by a friend from college to let us set up a studio in his home over the weekend. Leon and I were the only two guys in a group of 32 girls in my homegroup. One of the reasons I became a teacher I guess. After 7 years in a boys-only school ( I had to repeat a year) I wanted to be in a place where there were girls to talk to. Also, Burwood Teachers College was just a short bus ride away. My future was mapped out by happenstance. Going to college not only gave me a great career in teaching but also led to me forming a band in 1977.

Life's Rich Pageant by R. E. M. 1986

I was living in Elwood when I first heard about REM. There used to be a little record shop just past the roundabout near 7-11. Across the road from that was a musical instrument shop where I bought the acoustic guitar I use nowadays. I was in their rifling through the meagre selection of records when they started talking about how on the new album you could hear what the singer was talking about. They were speaking in such glowing terms I asked them to put on a record but they were sold out. I finally tracked the album down at Greville Records. And it was just brilliant.

It sounded great. It seemed to have a jangly Byrds-like sound all over it which appealed to me. And such great melodies. I was singing along to it night and day. Even at Inflation, I'd be at a table singing along to the tune in my head. Cuyahoga or I Believe. Fall On Me or Superman. One great song after another.

It was one of the first albums I neatly put in a plastic sleeve and sprayed with some anti-static stuff. I had just bought a superb sound system. This was one of the first heavy plays.

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers 1976

I first saw a picture of Tom Petty on the cover of Sounds magazine in 1977 when amongst all the UK punk bands the press over there were raving about this American band led by Tom Petty. I was really into punk then and couldn't understand why they were going on about these long haired old time rock band. Then I heard American Girl and thought it was brilliant. Then I read how Tom was working with Roger McGuinn and I heard Two Way Garden do a version of Breakdown at an afternoon session at the Ballroom.
Then I saw the album on sale for 2:99 and it was mine. And it was great. great to dance to. Great to drive to. It reminded a bit of the Byrds,  It was just good guitar pop from the opener Rockin' Around With You to Hometown Blues both of which my girlfriend and I  used to bop around to.
It really got me interested in all those other guitar pop bands from the USA which I had been ignoring of late. Bands that were being labeled power pop. And Tom kept making great albums.

The Queen is Dead by The Smiths 1986

Despite all the rubbish that seems to encapsulate what people call the 80s dayglo, Duran Duran etc. to me the true 80's is reflected in bands like the Smiths and Orange Juice and Billy Bragg and so many more great bands finishing off with Stone Roses.
The Queen is Dead came out while I was working at Barbarellas and I remember playing every track on the night I first took it to the club. Mind you the slower tracks appeared either early or at 5 in the morning. As a testament to how much the band was loved all the tracks attracted people to the dance floor. There is a Light That Never Goes Out became a late night anthem that I was still playing at clubs 20 years later. No one ever got sick of that track.
The album opens up with the storming Queen is Dead and never lets up even during the slow songs. The only song I soon got tired of was Frankly Mr Shankly. Never really liked it. But every great album needs at least one bad song.
The album reminds me so much of Barbarellas because we'd play it loud over the big speakers. Echoing through this big old seventies style disco.  Fabulous.  And I haven't even mentioned Bigmouth Strikes Again another Indie Anthem. The Boy With A Thorn in His Side. Just fabulous.
2 weeks later they released Panic. This is the real 80s.

The Beat by The Beat 1979

One of the last great albums of the seventies this album is a template on how to play great Power Pop. In retrospect this is probably the best Power Pop album ever. In a genre mostly known for singles The Beat came out with this. I can't remember where I picked it up from or even why I picked it up. But from the first track Rock N Roll Girl it just made me want to pick up my guitar and play along. I was living in Fitzroy North behind a petrol station and on the weekends I'd open up the windows and blast this one out. I guess I've always loved sharing my musical tastes with others either through putting speakers in windows or writing this kind of stuff. But hell this sounds good loud!
It really influenced my song writing style too. Then and now! This was the kinda stuff I wanted to write. Instant 3 minute classics. I never got to play any of these songs live but I was always trying to convince other bands to cover them. I got Jonestown a band who were on my record label Swerve to cover "Walking Out on Love". I remember hearing them play it at the Tote. It was glorious.
A few years back now Paul Collin's Beat also played the Tote with Little Murders supporting. It was great getting to meet Paul and he used my Fender amp too! And they were fabulous. A great guitar band.

Specials by The Specials 1979

1979  I was in England on holiday and there was like a youth explosion as Paul Weller so aptly put it. Everywhere in London, there were young guys in suits and girls in Mod dresses. They were dancing in record shops and congregating in Carnaby Street. There were lots of Mod bands about but what a lot of the Mods were listening to was ska music particularly The Specials, The Beat and Madness who seemed to be everywhere including one edition of Top of The Pops. Modern Ska was cool, intelligent and easy to dance to. Plus they wore the clothes mods aspired to. Just looking at the sleeve of the Specials this is what the Mods were wearing.
I bought my copy of Specials in a department store in Paris. I was surprised when I saw it was produced by Elvis Costello which I guess gives it the alternative rock edge. Even more, I was amazed at how good it was from first to the last song. No wonder the UK was going ska crazy. These bands were producing top-class albums. Just holding the cover in my hands felt so cool.
I didn't get to hear it again after Paris until I got back to Melbourne. Then it was never off my turntable.
Later it would become a part of the Lizard DJ set where I would play a number of tracks from it.
A few years back I went and saw them live at The Metro. Just brilliant. No one was wearing suits though. well, not in the audience. Then a bit later they played at the Royal Melbourne Zoo and it turned out to be one of the best gigs I've ever been to. Total atmosphere!

Snap by The Jam 1983

Possibly the best greatest hits album ever released and this one really works because when all is said and done The Jam were the ultimate singles band.  Great albums they made for sure but their singles were just amazing. This package came out a year after their breakup and charts the rise and rise of The Jam with all their finest moments wrapped up in one bundle. Of course, a lot of The Jam's greatest hits packages came after but the original is still the greatest. On vinyl of course.

So putting this on takes me back to the first time I heard them in my brother Tony's house on a borrowed record player. On the platform on Victoria Station London when the hit parade in the record store window showed Eton Rifles was number 4. In Blackpool record shops when Setting Sons was just released. Arguing at Kommotion over the merits of Sound Affects. Photocopying Jam songbooks borrowed off Gary Lake from 5:15. Talking my band into covering Tube Station. Rewriting their songs in the Mod days. 

Their is so much brilliant stuff on here. Of course you can track down a CD with all this and more.

Of course I already had all these singles already when this came out. 

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It's a toss-up between this album and Fanclub's "Bandwagonesque" for top honours but this beats it because of the way it's seamlessly integrated itself into my life. When I picked it up in Athens, Greece of all places I had kinda lost interest in the band so when I put this on my portable CD player, I was knocked out by how good it was. And it keeps getting better even as I listen to it now. I played the album all through the Greek Islands. It felt right sitting on the veranda sipping beer with the sun low in the sky. Or walking through busy streets. With that sun thing down on me.
And when I got home to Melbourne I continued playing the album and it's still a constant even now.. I must have played it at least once a month for the last 30 years.  It's become a part of my life. Not someplace I go to.... but the music I keep close..always.

It took me a long time to get it on vinyl too. In 2018 Little Murders toured Japan. On the last day of our stay I hung back at our Air BnB having a quiet one before leaving the next morning. We had played a gig in Yokohama in the afternoon. Our bass player Bruce went for one last walk around Shimokitazawa, which wasn't too far away, to look at some record shops. I got a text message that he had found this on vinyl. I was kind of miffed after the amount of time that I had spent in record shops over the tour. Total envy. 6 months later they rereleased all the albums on vinyl. Luckily I am not a purist so I picked up a copy.

Special mention to Fanclub's other classic album Grand Prix which is right up there with this one.

My Generation by The Who 1965

For a while there this was the Holy Grail. I spent the second half of the Seventies searching high and low for a copy of this record. That I found a copy just as I was becoming one of the new Mods of 1979 was incredibly timely. When I came across a copy in that underground record shop that I still can't remember the name of I was beside myself with joy. I held it in my hands and I think I actually let out a loud whoop!. That it was only 5 bucks as well. And it was the UK version. In mono. The day was over for record shopping. (Although I did get Shake Some Action by The Flamin Groovies just before. Same-store same price.) 
Actually finding gold like this record has led to a lot of searching through cardboard boxes looking for hidden treasure. Unfortunately, everyone is into it now.
When I got home I played it to death. No, I didn't want to keep a valuable pristine copy, I wanted to hear it on the turntable playing loud. I propped the sleeve upon the top of the player for the world to see. Not long after my flat was broken into and they stole my Les Paul, a six-pack of beer and a carton of Kent cigarettes. Thank God they didn't take this. It's irreplaceable.