One of my earliest musical memories is Jive Bunny. My older sister had a copy of Jive Bunny: The Album on tape, and when she wasn't home, I'd sneak into her room and listen to it. This went on for weeks, probably months, until one day, the tape got all mangled in the stereo. Being only 5 or 6, I tried to salvage it but made things a lot worse. My sister came home, got real mad, and hit me. She got grounded and I never listened to Jive Bunny again.
I used to go on a lot of car journeys with my parents due to pretty much all of my aunties and uncles living 15-20 miles away from us. My Dad didn't drive so had no say on the music that got played in the car, but I remember my Mam had this one mixtape that got absolutely played to death. I think it may have been the only tape she owned. I remember several songs specifically from it it...
The Shangri-Las - Leader of The Pack
Del Shannon - Runaway
The Ronettes - Be My Baby
The Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody
Billy Fury - Halfway To Paradise
Ben E King - Stand By Me
The Drifters - Under The Boardwalk
The Drifters - Saturday Night At The Movies
The Drifters - Save The Last For Me
My Mam was a huge Elvis fan, and my Dad loved Rory Gallagher, but they didn't play much music at home so I was never really exposed to anything other than that tape.
The next thing that springs to mind on my timeline is NOW 35 which I got in Christmas 1996. It was this compilation that aroused my interest in rock/indie after hearing stuff like...
Babybird - You're Gorgeous
Deep Blue Something - Breakfast At Tiffany's
Dodgy - If You're Thinking Of Me
The Beautiful South - Rotterdam
Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over
Ocean Colour Scene - The Riverboat Song
Pulp - Something Changed
The Bluetones - Marblehead Johnson
Cast - Flying
Suede - Beautiful Ones
Space - Neighbourhood
Shed Seven - Chasing Rainbows
NOW 35 is also responsible for me being a fan of The Lighthouse Family for a bit, I even got one of their albums for Christmas
I suppose 1997 was the biggest year for me musically. After already being lured by some of the tracks on NOW 35, I discovered that my best mates older brother had a vast collection of CD's from the very bands that I'd heard on that compilation, and then some. Whenever we were round my mates, and his brother wasn't home, we'd spend hours listening to his CD's. It was during these sessions that I truly discovered Oasis for the first time. I'd heard the singles from WTSMG at this point, so I recognized the name, but that was it. As well as listenint to all of WTSMG whenever we got the chance, we started to dig into Cast, The Verve, Ocean Colour Scene, Blur, Manic Street Preachers. It was amazing, hearing all this stuff for the first time.
That summer, I went on holiday to Turkey with my parents and spent pretty much all my money on albums by the bands I'd discovered. I listened to Definitely Maybe & WTSMG so much on that holiday and I reckon my parents spent a small fortune on batteries. Then when we came back, there was the hype around the Be Here Now release. I didn't get it on release day, and don't think I ended up actually getting the album on CD until that Christmas, but my best mates brother got it and made me a copy of it on tape. I was blown away.
After being obsessed with Oasis, I of course discovered that they were heavily influenced by The Beatles. Everyone had heard of The Beatles, and heard the hits, because they're The Beatles, but knowing they were such a huge influence on my new favourite band made me want to hear more than just the popular stuff. Revolver was the first full album I heard by The Beatles. That was during a week long school trip for GCSE Media Studies. It was during this trip that I was also first introduced to The Doors, and Led Zepellin, but they never left the same impression on me as The Beatles. Later in the same year, I again went on holiday to Turkey with my parents, and this time, my best mate came with us. While I was there, I picked up copies of Revolver & Rubber Soul, and listened to them to the point of obession. To this day, my mate (who never really got into music as much as I did) still mentions that holiday and how fed up he got of those albums.
In my final years of school (2000/2001) I remember everyone getting heavy into the likes of Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Papa Roach, etc, and while at the time, I didn't really mind that stuff, it wasn't where my heart was. I remember really loving Echo Park by Feeder and getting laughed at by my mates. It was a different sort of modern rock then I was used to. It wasn't Britpop, and I didn't think it sounded much like the stuff I'd grown to love. I'm not saying it's a stone cold classic or anything, but back then, it just sounded different, and I was hearing what I suppose are production values that I'd never really heard before. I listened to that album a lot. By this time, we had a car with a CD player, and whenever I went on journeys with my parents, I'd insist on having it on in the car.
It was also round about this time that I watched Nirvana Unplugged In New York for the first time. I liked never well enough from what I'd heard but I wasn't a die hard fan or anything. Then one night, I was channel hopping and saw that MTV2 were playing an acoustic Nirvana gig. I didn't know it existed, and I couldn't get my head round the fact that a band like Nirvana were playing stripped back versions of their tunes. I was in awe. I remember thinking at the time it was one of the most amazing things I'd seen/heard, and it made me look at Nirvana in a whole new light and appreciate them a whole lot more.
The next thing to come along which I got really into was The Strokes' debut. I was in college at the time and everyone was talking about The Strokes and hyped for the album. There was a real buzz among the crowds I hung out with and it felt exciting. It reminded me of the buzz arounf Be Here Now but I was a little too young to get really involved. The day after the album dropped, everyone was just in awe of what they'd heard, me included. It felt like a long-lost classic while also sounding fresh and current.
Then there was The Libertines - Up The Bracket. Behind Be Here Now, it's the album that has probably blown me away the most, but it wasn't as instance as Be Here Now. I remember the hype around The Libertines but never really got into that much, at least not for the first album. I was a frequent reader of NME and there wasn't a week that went by that they weren't mentioned and I think I just got bored of reading about them and was really put off them. The first time I listened to Up The Bracket I just couldn't fathom the hype at all. It just sounded like a total mess to the point I thought it was a piss take. I remember my mate ringing me, who'd bought the album on the same day, and saying; "This is the worst thing I've ever heard, I'm taking it back". I was in agreement, but I told him I was going to give it another couple of listens.
I stayed up pretty late that night and listened to it another 3 or 4 times, and started warming to it. I got up the next morning and gave it another go and that's when it clicked. I picked my phone up to text my mate and tell him I'd changed my mind and thought it was amazing but before I could, he'd text me saying pretty much the same thing. He came round mine and we spent the day drinking cheap beer and listening to Up The Bracket. It was magical, and the album was the soundtrack to some great times. It was probably the 1 album that made me realise that albums could grow and sound better with repeated listens so it taught ma a valuable lesson.
The final thing I'll mention is Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's debut. I bought their debut because they had a cool as fuck name and figured that with such a great name, they had to be decent. It was a gamble that paid off because it introduced me to a sound that I was pretty much unfamiliar with and was the starting point of my journey into psychedelic rock which to date is one of my absolute favourite genres of music.
I could go on and on and on about this stuff but I'm going to pretty much wrap my origins story up there.
TL;DR
Now That's What I Call Music 35
Oasis - WTSMG
Oasis - Be Here Now
The Beatles - Revolver
The Beatles - Rubber Soul
Feeder - Echo Park
Nirvana Unplugged in New York
The Strokes - Is This It
The Libertines - Up The Bracket
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club -
