The Beatles by The Beatles 1968

After my Mum came home with Abbey Road and left it as a surprise on my bed for when I got in from school I became an insatiable Beatles nut. I actually started with their later albums and moved backwards to their earlier stuff. So after Abbey Road I bought what is known as the White album.
I had to save up for a few weeks using money from my chemist round. Delivering prescription drugs to sick people. I wonder if they still let teenagers do that. When I got the album home it looked so beautiful. all white with raised lettering. Four photographs of the band plus a big poster with snapshots on one side and lyrics on the other. The poster was censored cutting off a picture of John in the bath.
The music was just wonderful and would keep me entertained for years to come as I would alternate my favourite songs and sides. "Happiness is A Warm Gun" was the first one to grab me. Our neighbour (3AK DJ Graeme Boyd's wife) came over while I was playing that song and was convinced it had swear words and wouldn't stop going on about it. Still can't think which bit gave her that idea. "Back in the USSR" which became massive down the Rubber Soul. "Julia" "Martha My Dear" it just goes on and on. I even listened to Revolution 9 a few times but late at night I would find that too scary.
At the same time I'd picked up the Hunter Davies Beatles biography so this was the soundtrack to those summer days in Blackburn South. And because I had quite a shitty record player I missed whole pieces of music, particularly in Yer Blues. Even now when I hear it properly it gives me a jolt.

(This happened a lot with those mid-period Beatles albums.. my stereo didn't pick up bits particularly the start of Sgt Pepper where some of the lead singing was way in the background)

Rattus Norvegicus by The Stranglers 1977

The first bunch of punk albums to come out of the UK just sounded so fresh compared to what we had been listening to before. It really did feel like year zero. The first I heard of The Stranglers was a very short snippet of the clip for Grip that they showed on the music news section of Countdown. It sounded great. It looked great and a few days later it was in the shops.
Tons of classics on this album. Peaches, Hanging Around, Grip, London Lady...it just sounded fantastic. A bit more retro than the other bands. well apart from The Jam. Big Doors influence. The lyrics of course were very sexist. But so was Under My Thumb 10 years earlier.
Six months later they came out with a second album. My sister sent it to me for my 21st birthday. She and my Mum were living in England. She wrote birthday greetings on the back though that kind of wrecked my punk credentials a touch.
Then the band came to Australia. I went to see them at Latrobe Uni. Supported by the Models. The Stranglers seemed a little pissed off. Then they got really pissed of and suddenly there were cans of beer flying all over the place. I was up the front dodging cans. Amazing stuff. They only played for 40 minutes.  Maybe even shorter. But it was totally action-packed.

Quadrophenia by The Who 1973

This one is all about the packaging. I loved the Who but it was the sixties I was really into. Quadrophenia music-wise was never a big deal for me. There were times I loved it but often I would ignore it. I bought it because I was interested in the whole Mod thing at the time. But unfortunately, this is not Mod music. Indeed I haven't listened to it for a long time. Well not properly because it's there when I play the film. In the background.
But that's not why this album is important to me. When I bought the album. When it was just vinyl it came inside a big 12 by 12 book of photos. I would pore over the photos of sixties Mod culture over and over. It was what I harked back to. Maybe it was because I left England in 1965 just when it was about to explode (though I was only 8) but I kept returning to the book. Totally fascinated. Something that not many kids will get to see nowadays.
And of course, there was the film. As Mods, it shaped our lives in 1979. And so we'd come back to the album to relive the film. Or play the soundtrack album. It all just went round and round. But it's always been there. A bit like a musical.
So I would play Quadrophenia and other Who albums as I turned the pages. There are some great songs here. The Real Me & 5:15 are standouts. I also by this stage I was preferring Pete Townshend's voice to Roger's.

In 2019 I was in San Francisco and spent a day by myself checking out the town. I went into this photo art gallery and began chatting to the daughter of the owner about the fantastic photos on the walls. Maybe it was a quiet day but she let me go back into the storeroom where they kept work not on display. Work after work blew my mind. Duffy Bowie negatives for Alladin Sane! Original artwork for many albums I loved. Oh, my God1 The original artwork for Quadrophenia was there too. Much bigger and more exciting. I was afraid to ask the price. 

They also brought out Eric Clapton's 'Blackie' Stratocaster guitar for me to look at. The original which they were commissioned to sell. ( the story of a lot of the things they were selling came from divorce settlements) Did I know anyone in Australia who might want to buy it? Even I didn't realise at the time that it was worth over a million dollars.  No big Clapton fan myself I was still pretty much in awe as I held the guitar. The first thing I noticed was the cigarette burns on the headstock. The lightness of the guitar when I picked it up. The balance was amazing.  

What a day that turned out!

Blow Up A-Go-Go! by various artists 1999

I bought this album at the Mighty Music Machine in Chapel Street Prahran. I bought it because there was a song by the Kinks that I'd never heard of. Of course, it may have been rubbish (but it wasn't) but there was something about the look of the album that said it might have some good stuff on it. I took a quick listen on the headphones something I hardly ever do. Mainly because it usually puts me off buying the record. Anyway, a quick scan through this album and I was amazed at how great it all sounded. It was like a glimpse into someone else's club or their record box. These songs were touted as hits from the legendary Blow Up club in London. And when I got the album home and started playing it I was wishing I could go to a club that played these songs. It set me off on a trip looking for more obscure but groovy sounds from the sixties and seventies. Not really something I'd done before but now I was buying weird seventies soundtracks and hip lost treasures. 

The first hour of the Lizard Lounge as the people were just coming in I'd use to create my own little Blow-Up vibe. Spinning tracks like Bert's Apple Crumble, Bongolia and Shake by The Shadows of Knight. Also got me back into playing Northern Soul and early ska. In 1999 while everyone was getting a little bit more dance floor I was constantly listening to obscure groovy tracks.

Just listening to the album again now I want to get some friends together and party. 

Stoneage Romeos by Hoodoo Gurus 1984

Booked to support Little Murders on a Monday night at the Prospect Hill Hotel (Monday nights were incredibly huge gigs.. the place was packed and always ready to party!... it was a major score to get a months residency there) they pulled out at the last minute but we got to play with them a little later on a shared bill at the Jump Club.

Le Hoodoo Gurus took off really quickly it seemed. They had this brilliant single called Leilana that was all over RRR. When I saw them play I was amazed that they just had guitars and drums and no bass player. The crowd went nuts. They loved everything they did.

Soon they would drop the Le and a guitarist (the legendary Roddy Ray'Da), add a bass player and record a bunch of brilliant singles and this great album. All the singles ended up on this album. Tojo, My Girl, a new version of Leilana. I was mad about this record.

When I wasn't playing myself I'd go and see them at places like Macy's and the Armadale. I particularly remember their cover songs too like "That's Cool, That'sTrash" by the Kingsmen and Galveston by Glen Campbell. It took me ages to find the original version of the Kingsmen record. It was such a good song. Hoodoos should of recorded it though because it's their version that sticks in my head.

Later on we played this album to death at places like the Beehive and Barbarella's. A classic Australian album that helped to define the guitar era of the Eighties.

For a start it's the one with Waterloo Sunset on it so that's worth the price of admission alone.
After buying the Golden Hour of The Kinks I started looking for more Kinks albums. K-Mart had a few cheap ones in horrible sleeves on labels like MFP or Music For Pleasure. The first one I picked up was in a horrible purple sleeve with the worst photo of the band. I actually made my own cover for it when I find out it was actually Something Else (not Waterloo Sunset as was the name on the cover). I built the cover from bits of cardboard and photos from an old pop annual. Though I wish I'd kept the annual now.
The Kinks work as been endlessly compiled and resold which is a great shame because they are right up there with the Beatles, the Who and The Stones.
Anyway after Village Green this is arguably their best album. It is just so English and in the early seventies when I started getting into the Kinks I was also getting back into my Englishness. I couldn't listen to Crosby Stills and Nash or James Taylor or hear about endless highways and golden beaches. I had become focused on wet streets and old buildings and would watch old films like Billy Liar and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. My pin-up girls were Julie Christie and Chrissie Shrimpton. Not a Californian girl in sight. And this is what Ray Davies wrote about and their music reflected. There are no better songs about London than those by Ray Davies.
And what songs! Apart from what I beleive is the best song ever written in Waterloo Sunset there is the sibling rivalry of Two Sisters, the ode to smoking which is Harry Rag..Death of Clown (a song I once based a painting on during High School art).. brilliant album!

Idlewild by Everything But The Girl 1988

Well, there's got to be some quiet time around the house. It can't all be pounding drums and chiming guitars.  In 1988 when this album came out I was living in Elwood on the top floor of a block of flats in Meredith Street. You could actually go up from my flat and it was a big open roof. One year I threw a birthday party up there. It was pretty big. A friend of mine who was minding the place actually dragged a mattress up there one hot night and slept up there. On New Year's Eve, you could watch the fireworks.
I remember playing this song a lot at Meredith Street. Not only was the sound lush and one could say a little to the middle of the road. But calming on a Sunday afternoon. Sitting on an Ikea couch (the same one as two of my friends) Surrounded by Art Deco statues, art prints and Japanese robots. Waiting for friends to turn up with a bottle of Stolly. Especially after 3 nights of DJing playing lots of guitar music.
And I really liked the lyrics.  So it wasn't just background music. It was an album to listen to. Back in a time when I would actually sit on the sofa and listen to records. I'm not even sure I could do that anymore. I really enjoy hearing albums in the car because I can really hear what's going on but more often than not I will rely on music I really know. So I now I listen to music while I'm busy doing something else. Like right now, typing.