London Calling by The Clash 1979

1979 I arrive in the UK and the first thing I do is go to the record shop and buy London Calling by The Clash and Setting Sons by The Jam. Then I had to wait a couple of days until I got round to my aunt Sheila's house to get to a record player. My cousin Neil had a set up with the speakers resting above the curtains in the front room. All I wanted to do was listen to the records but I was there with my girlfriend and I hadn't seen my family for years. I only managed to get through the first side of this but what a first side. The clarion call of the title track, the rock and roll of Brand New Cadillac,,it just sounded so great. And then it got better.
They were playing at Lancaster University which was a short distance from Blackpool. We were down the local record shops the next morning to get tickets. At the show through which we drove through snow and ice and mud to get to we were treated to The Clash in their absolute prime. It was breathtaking watching these legends in what was really a small hall at the University. We were able to get up close and then move back when the crowd exploded. On the way out I bought a poster which is still on my wall today. Actually for a few months in 1980 I lent it to Missing Link for their window display.
A few years later I'm at The Clash's after show party at the Jump Club when my mate Jimmy grabs Joe Strummer and introduces him to me. We sat on the stage and for 20 minutes he told me how important it was to keep going with the band despite all the crap you go through in rock music. I must have listened well because here I am 40 years later working on a new album. Joe was brilliant. He is sadly missed in this world.
I love this album. One of the few great double albums. And what a cover! Magic.

Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen 1975

In 1975 I was at Burwood Teachers College. Near the cafeteria, they would regularly have a record stall organised by the student union consisting of boxes of records many being imports and cut-outs. I'm pretty sure they came from Monash records. One lunchtime I came down to see a group of girls in my class sitting around a table passing round an album cover. These girls had fallen for the charisma of Bruce Springsteen just by looking at the cover.

Yep, it was a cool cover but I hadn't heard anything of his yet. It took hearing Jungleland on the album show on the next Sunday night to convert me.

I hastily tracked down the album and bought it from my local record store which was Box Hill Brashs. Took it to my room and listened intently. My head on a pillow between 2 speakers. And out blasted Thunder Road.

Straightaway I was transported into Springsteen's world. There I was on the streets of New Jersey or just as easily in the film Mean Streets. There were bits of sixties wreckage scattered around the album. Spector, girl groups, the tinkling sound heard on Dusty Springfield Records. Punk rock was just around the corner, but I didn't believe for a second it was crap before that. There was just a lot of it and really it never went away. But there was also a lot of magic stuff. This album rocks. I even bought a Telecaster just like Bruce. and a leather jacket.

Put the cassette in the tape deck. Start the car. Drive. Brilliant

Piper At The Gates Of Dawn by Pink Floyd 1967

When punk rock came along Pink Floyd represented the enemy of music. Johnny Rotten had a t-shirt with I Hate Pink Floyd on it. I had never owned a Floyd album and any leaning towards Dark Side was ruined when I spent 24 hours supporting a mate who was listening to it 24 hours straight to raise money for charity.  However, I did like the early singles that were introduced to me by  Bowie's Pin-Ups album. See Emily Play being the song he covered. (not a touch on the original I daresay)
In the early 80's I picked up an NME annual that had an article by Nick Kent on Syd Barret. It was the time of the paisley underground and before now I'd never seen a copy of Piper. But there it was in the second-hand record shop so I bought it dead cheap. And it was just fantastic. Suddenly I got what people were raving about. I couldn't stop playing the thing. I was living in Clarke street Prahran with a girl from my school and I swear I probably drove her out of the house listening to it.
More's the pity that is the only Syd Barret Pink Floyd album we were gonna get as his mind kinda exploded soon after this. But then I found a copy of Relics in my own collection. One of those cheap albums from K-Mart that had been lurking around the back of my collection for years and only been aired for the singles.
I even learned to like a few newer Pink Floyd songs when my wife turned out to be a Pink Floyd fan. Though as hard as I try I could never listen to Animals nor The Wall straight through. Too much punk rock in me.

Hatfull of Hollow by The Smiths 1984

The Smiths were like this big thunderbolt in the early eighties. Everything they did was amazing. I had the first album and was playing it to death when one afternoon I was over at my friend Tania's flat. A huge apartment that overlooked Port Phillip Bay and was metres from the Espy. I was looking through her records when I came across a Smiths record I wasn't even aware of. At first, I was bamboozled because here was an album that contained tracks already on the first album. It turns out they just released their own kind of bootleg. I remember sitting around the flat but itching to get out to a record shop so I could get my own copy.
I had to drive into the city to Missing Link but boy was it worth it. It was like a greatest hits set from a band that was only beginning. I quickly copied it to tape so I could play it in my little Fiat 128 as I dashed around town.
How many times must I have listened to "Please Please Please let me get what I want" and felt sorry for myself? The scene in Pretty in Pink pretty much sums it up.
Morrissey's words were just unbelievably on target for what I and I guess millions of others were thinking. "What Difference Does It Make?" "You've Got Everything Now" For the short time the Smiths were together they were one amazing record after another.

Rubber Soul by The Beatles 1965

It might not be there best album but its impact and influence on me would be the greatest. It would be my real entry point into the Beatles. It came out a few months after I arrived in Australia in 1965. I didn't get the album until 1968. It's the one where I really thought of them producing an album that I could listen to again and again on this old record player someone had given us. It was the first Beatles album I ever owned and I still get goosebumps looking at the cover. This is what a band should look like. Not those corny suits with no collars.
And what songs. Drive My Car was a regular play at Rubber Soul the club I DJed at named after the album. Incidentally, we followed that up with Revolver in 91. Run For Your Life which always reminds me of my brother John because he would always ask me to put that song on again. The magical In My Life... often applauded as the best Beatles song ever.
The only dud for me is Ringo's What Goes On which is country by numbers. Everything else is brilliant. And look at the two songs they left off to release a single. Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out.
I put the album on this morning. The guitars sparkle. The harmonies and melodies dazzle. And it rocks.

Through The Past Darkly by The Rolling Stones 1969

I had to think long and hard about this one because of course, it's a compilation. So is it worth devalued? Not to me,
I first heard this record when my brother would play it on Sunday mornings as we lay in bed. He had the record player in between our two beds. Of all the stuff he played this was my favourite. I loved the cover. The strange polygon shape. The world's coolest band mugging to the camera. And then just a heap of brilliant songs and album tracks that laid the groundwork for all my Stones purchases. Jumping Jack Flash, Mother's Little helper, She's a Rainbow, 2000 Light years...and more.
In 1972 my brother got married and sold off all his records. So I bought this record and a few more classics. I still remember going through these great records knowing that they would soon be mine. I think they cost me 50 cents each.
When I started DJing at Rubber Soul this stayed in the box for 6 years then moved to the Lizard Lounge box until CD eventually replaced the vinyl.
I was contemplating writing about Exile and while checking out that album I came across Through The Past Darkly. Front cover now sadly gone. A little scratchy. But putting the needle on the record and I realise how much it used to mean to me. And still does.
And don't underestimate the power of compilations.

All Mod Cons by The Jam 1978

I was just finishing up my punk era playing in a band called the Fiction. I had already got them to wear suits and ties on stage and introduced a number of sixties cover songs. I guess it was all leading to this. In 1978 when this came out it gave a lot of us a direction and style. The words were bandied about a lot. But with this album, The Jam gave us songs of style and content up there with the Kinks. After the disappointing second album where even their clothes were starting to look old hat, they came out with a blinding burst of post-punk modernism. Suddenly there were more scooters. More parties with sharp suits and mini skirts. The world moved towards a new technicolour age.
And there was "Tube Station". One of their greatest songs and a cover Little Murders played in 1982 and still played 30 years later.. It's mod poetry! A few years back I saw Paul Weller play at the Forum. He's good but when he plays Jam songs he's a god!