3372

My name is Ian, I am 53 and I am a junkie.

I started at the end of 1979, getting my first fix in the chemist, before moving on to the serious stuff from dealers.

There were many dealers in Lowestoft, you could get a fix on almost every corner, if you had the money. I even began working to pay for my habit.

They say your first fix is the best, the high is never so good, and you chase that first high for the rest of your life. Not sure about that.

My first fix looked great, but was not what I was expecting.

Queen Live Killers was brightly coloured, enticing, and had Freddie on the cover. I had loved Don't Stop me Now and Crazy Little Thing Called Love, this had dreadful live versions spread over four sides.

I didn't even have my own record player.

I bought that, and maybe Parallel Lines around the same time. I still have Blondie.

Collecting vinyl is something that my friends did, and so I fell into. Singles first, then LPs.

But the truth is, I don't like LPs. I like an instant three minute fix that a single 45 provides. You know what you're getting, it delivers. An album is always a gamble. You might like the first single, maybe a second, or John Peel played a couple of tracks, or back in my headbanging days, Tommy Vance. But most groups can't really hold the pace or quality for 40 minutes.

Don't get me started on CDs with 75 minute running time.

So, I began to collect vinyl. Even though most I would play just once, maybe just the track I liked.

But I kept buying.

Some i sold, most I kept, and kept through 2 divorces, several home moves, posting to and from Germany, and now sitting nice in our living room. But I don't play them much. Of all the albums we have between us, we play Public Service Broadcasting most of all. Of those I have had for years, can't remember the last one I played.

I say this because, I bought David Hepworth's latest tome, A Fabulous Creation, a few weeks back, read it over two trips to Denmark and loved it, but I realised something whilst reading it, I don't like LPs that much, never have, and when you think of what the original idea was, to have a symphony on a single piece of recorded medium, and whilst Beethoven might have more than enough to make 40 minutes last forever, most bands don't.

A few years back, Danny Baker had a show on TV where folks talked about their favourite albums. I know, made for not great TV, but I became aware that I hadn't listened to many of what were thought of as classic albums. For instance, I have never listened to a whole album by The Beatles. Just the best of, Number 1. Not even Sgt. Pepper.

Not Help.

Not Rubber Soul.

Not one album by Bob Dylan.

Not one by Led Zeppelin.

I did write a post about it back then, no idea in which year, but its back there.

But how many albums are there really of sitting down to listen to all the way through? Two albums, though I don't have them on vinyl, I listened to on cassette down the Falklands over a four month tour were The Bends by Radiohead and One Mississippi by Brendan Benson. I got to know and love those records. even the poor tunes, of there wasn't many.

But, I am sure had I taken time to listen to my LPs more often, I would have grown to like them. I'm sure.

For Christmas 1980, I pressured Mum to get me a triple album by Rush, Archives. She got it, I played some of it once, and never touched it again.

I went to see Iron Maiden in 1981, bought didn't buy their album, Killers, no, I bought the album by the support band, French rockers, Trust. Two good tracks and the rest, nah. Lyrics written by Jimmy Pursey, btw.

I got The Wall for Christmas 1979, with money from my paper round Christmas Box. I liked the single. I meand we all liked that. But four sides. I didn't have the concentration for that. Loved the sleeve though.

I still have Eat to the Beat from the same Christmas though, Blondie's power pop never goes out of fashion, though I guess I haven't played it since 1982.

I have all the Joy Division records. I do. Even Still. The limited edition version. It has Dead Souls on it, which I play over and over, always have. It has a live version of Ceremony. And, that is it. Even the two proper albums, I mean I know they're good, earnest. And Ian really meant the lyrics. But I was more of a pop singles fan.

Still am really.

I think it's best to be honest.

Phil Spector used to put two hits on the LPs his acts made the rest filler. And most albums are the same, I could have listened to more. I should have listened to more, but I might have missed something else, you know.

So, with so many albums that I "have" to listen to, I might just be happy in my ignorance, and put the twelve inch of WFL on again.

Why change the habit of a lifetime?