Tuesday 26th April 2016

Monday

Interview day.

Those of you who read my words on a regular basis will know that via a series of unfortunate events, I was approached by the BBC to be interviewed about being a music geek. In particular the charts I used to write and keep during most of the 1980s. The question really was, why did we do it. I say we as it was my friend, Trevor's, idea. Initially it was frustration at the rubbish in the chart, but then for me it was a way to find new music and I think keep track of it. Back in 1980, I was 14 going on 15 and could barely afford to buy one single a week, let alone albums, so instead of buying stuff, I kept my charts, recorded songs of the radio, marked the start point from the tape counter on my music system, and come Tuesday night, pretend I was a DJ on my own radio station, doing the chart rundown.

Chartbound sounds, if you will.

So, I talked about what it is now; a window into my music tastes on a week by week basis, and for me that is really invaluable to me; seeing whnI switched from just liking music to switching to Heavey Metal, and then to what was called electropop, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode and so on. For the researcher, it was a look into the music tribes of the day; mods, rockers, indie kids, metal heads, punks, skins, soul boys and straights. Because, even if you didnt fall into one of the music tribes, one was created for you anyway; straights.

I recalled how we went to Youth Club on a Tuesday night, 50p for two hours of music; 90 minutes of disco and soul, twenty minutes of ska and Two Tone and two heavy rock records; almost always Paranoid and Whole Lotta Rosie. A few of us also used to go to the Caroline Roadshow at the South Pier too, but that got boring too, and as a group we grew out of it, and were blessed with new albums by Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure, New Order, Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, Heaven 17, Human League, Altered Images, and so on and on and on. We were, in a word, spoilt for choice.

The I was asked to read out charts from through 1980, showing how my tastes changed from month to month, which it did very clearly. From the start in March I was into all sorts of music including The Specials, The Jam, Blondie; but by July it was half filled with metal from the Tommy Vance Show.

I was interviewed by a young lady, Zoe, who was both the researcher and camerawoman; I was filmed taking the chart book off the shelf, then going to sit down before talking about the charts. Zoe also had a PA, whose name I have forgotten in all the excitement.

In all, it went on for three hours, and we covered what it was like growing up in Lowestoft, a hundred miles and a hundred light years from the bright lights of London; how hard it was to get records, see bands and even hear the songs we wanted, only thanks to John Peel of course.

It will be broadcast in late September or early October, and I await the results with trepidation.