Slade Alive! by Slade 1972

I loved Glam Rock. It was the first real movement I was part of as it happened. Too young to be part of the real Beatles era. Not that interested in Hendrix and Creedence and all those American bands, Glam rock was a godsend for early seventies teenagers. First, it was T. Rex. And then Slade. They came out with these magnificent singles "Cos I Luv You" and "Look What U Dun". Then they brought out a live album. The radio kept on playing "Darlin' Be Home Soon" continually. We'd all wait for the quiet bit and then the burp and then kill ourselves laughing. Simple pleasures. The record shop windows were always ordained with this cover.
And they were coming to the Melbourne Showgrounds. This was going to be my first real concert. Lindisfarne, Status Quo and Slade. Tickets were $5:50. I went with my friends Geoff Thake and Alan Barnard who would later roadie and mix for Little Murders. The place was full of sharpies dancing their strange sharpie frug. When Slade came on I was too small to see over the older kids so Geoff put me on his shoulders for what seemed like the whole gig. It was just amazing. The rain came down. Wet happy and having one of the best times of my life.
On the back of my bedroom door, I had a large poster of Slade. For a brief time, Slade were the coolest band on the planet.

Setting Sons by The Jam 1979

Arriving in the UK in late 79 I waited until I got to my family's place in Blackpool before I let myself go record shopping. I was afraid of how much I would buy and then have to carry it around for the next month or so. So the first day in Blackpool I went to WH Smith and bought two albums, London Calling and Setting Sons. When I got back to my cousin Neil's house I didn't know what to put on first. In the end, I chose The Jam.
He had this thing called a Music Centre set up in the front room. The speakers were high and when I put on Setting Sons "Girl On The Phone " just exploded. I can't remember anything ever sounding so good. The trouble of course was I wouldn't really get to hear any more of this stuff until I got back to Melbourne.
But when I did arrive home in late January laden with boxes of albums and singles it was to a slightly different world. While there I had got myself a Union Jack coat made up by Paul Weller's tailor. My hair which had been growing long was now back to a short cut and it was done in Carnaby Street. I was ready to help kick-start the Mod movement in Melbourne. Me and a few friends would gather in a house in South Yarra and talk about what we could do to get more people interested in our Mod obsession. We started a club Kommotion and a fanzine called "Start" Little Murders draped amps in flags, covered Who and soul songs and organised Mod discos instead of support acts. On the street, scooters started appearing. In the background, The Jam "Setting Sons" played. A brilliant time was had by all.

Today by The Beach Boys 1965

I picked up this album up ina second-hand shop in the city at the peak of my record-buying mania in the late seventies where every week I would go into town just to see what new second-hand records were in. I think I used to fret knowing that every day more records were going into the shelves and being scooped up by others. But once a week I would come home with classic albums mostly American like Flaming Groovies, New York Dolls and The Beach Boys. Old sixties albums from the USA were always very tactile with bright colours and thick cardboard.
After listening to Pet Sounds continually I was interested in what Brian Wilson had released before though I was a bit turned off by some of those old cheesy surfing songs. But I had read so much about his writing I thought I would give it a try. This was the first one I found. And it was glorious. Such great melodies. Such great harmonies.  Such great songs. Still surfing pop but there is something more to the songs.
The first side is upbeat with that fantastic chugging surf beat the band had perfected. Well, the session musicians (known as the Wrecking Crew) But on the second side Brian Wilson gets a bit more melancholic. The production is more sumptuous. It was stuff like this that showed what a genius Brian was. Great songs except for a bit of rubbish at the end. But Beach Boys always seem to have a bit of rubbish at the end as if we want to hear the band mucking about in the studio.

Blood On The Tracks by Bob Dylan 1975

It was on the 3XY album show late on a Sunday night when I first heard "Idiot Wind" and was instantly glued to the speaker. Couldn't believe how good the song was. Especially since I'd kind of written Dylan off after Blonde on Blonde. It took me a while to buy the album though but when I saw it at the record stall at Burwood Teachers College and read the blurb on the back cover I thought it sounded like a good album by the way the author spoke of the work. When I got it home and started playing it I was just mesmerized. it was so cohesive it was like he wrote one song and just made variations on it. But it worked so well. It was like jumping on a roundabout.
I would take the album over to my girlfriend Leonie's house in Balwyn North and we would listen to it obsessively. Later when I moved to Oakleigh to a share house it was one of those 2am albums we'd sit and listen to after being out to gigs. It would also inform my first attempts at songwriting as I would make use of Dylan's chord progressions.
And the words. So many just hit home. Heartache, anger and loneliness indeed. Easily one of his best albums. It got me back on the Dylan kick searching down the albums I hadn't bought yet from before Blonde on Blonde. A year later he would follow it with another great album in Desire but it lacked the impact of the previous album. We thought Dylan was finished and irrelevant but Blood on The Tracks blew all those thoughts away. He would continue to surprise us for years to come.

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!