As previously mentioned, I'd quite liked Japan and was taken by Sylvian's collaboration with Ryuchi Sakamoto on Forbidden Colours. I...

From 1978-1982, XTC were probably my favourite band. I was lucky enough to see them a few times before they stopped doing live gigs, but...

I might have seen Prefab Sprout five years before this album was released, when as a duo they supported The Rezillos in Durham, but I...

Another recurring theme (apart from 'quid in a charity shop') is that what sounded new and exciting at the time can look quite ordinary...

I was lent this by a friend in the mid 1990s and was lukewarm about it. I re-discovered Waits about five years later, enjoying those...

On to 1982, and an album that completely passed me by at the time. As previously mentioned, I knew of The Fall, knew the singles but I...

After Eno worked with Talking Heads, producing Fear Of Music, and before Remain In Light was released, Eno and Byrne snook off down their...

I wasn't planning to do this one for a long time yet, but since today is the album's 50th birthday, it seemed fitting. It's an album I've...

Ash were one of the Britpop band I heard bits of and quite liked, so picked up the CD when I saw it cheap. For some reason I've barely...

Country rock / Americana music is not my thing. No sir, not at all. Yet something appealed on hearing Chris Isaak's 1990s hit (for some...

Carter USM were a band who seemed to appear from nowhere in the early 1990s, and return there just as quickly. This, their no 1 album...

My first exposure to James was the Sit Down single, which I always associate with it blaring out late at night from a college summer...

A charity CD compilation of songs for children by established artists, which I'd like to say I bought to help Save The Children, but I...

Still looking through the CD drawers of the 'disappeared', I stumble upon Grant Lee Buffalo. I'm guessing a quid in a charity shop as a...

A bit of a break from the chronological march through the years, to look at some of the CDs moved to the upstairs drawers when the...

There was a thriving music scene in Liverpool in the late 1970s based around Eric's Club, a scene I wasn't really aware of and if I had...

So much has been written about Joy Division and Ian Curtis, that I'm not sure I can add anything. I never saw them play, but heard this...

I have no anecdote about first hearing Magazine or this album. It just seems to have always been there, perhaps an influence of...

It had to be this album for 1977, didn't it? A quid in a charity shop, it had to be done. The first time I heard the Sex Pistols was...

I bought this on vinyl at the time. I was already an avid listener to Gong, but I'm not sure I'd made the connection with how much...