It Started With 99p

 

99p in decimal Stirling currency. That's what it cost to get started on this adventure of a lifetime. That and a gift from my cousin, Robert on his wedding day. 

Fifty years ago and mid June. We were a month into the long remembered Long Hot Summer of 1976. I was coming to the end of my primary education. And a lifelong obsession was beginning to assert itself. No,not crossdressing. True my feminine needs were starting to swirl around me at this time, but I'm talking about another obsession. Music. 

I had been steadily getting more and more into music, after becoming a regular viewer of the UK chart music television show, Top Of The Pops in the early 1970s. I was still just a young child  but it was essential viewing for me. I loved watching that show and also listening to Radio 1. In 1974 my Stepfather had given me a Heathkit transistor radio that he built from a kit.So by 1976 I was already a music fan. But there was a problem. I didn't own any music. My parents weren't especially musical and we didn't have a record player or have any hard copies of music. No vinyl or cassettes. Nothing. Just my trusty transistor radio. But that was about to change. 

My cousin Robert was much older than myself. He was in his mid 20s and was an aspiring entrepreneur and also had until recently run a mobile disco. He was getting married to a very glamorous and beautiful girl, who was a model. So we were invited to the wedding in Chester, and after the afternoon reception, we went back to my Auntie's (his mother) house for a couple of hours, before they went off to the adults only evening reception. It was the first wedding myself and my younger sister had ever attended, so we were very excited.  I remember all of the women wearing beautiful dresses and wanting to be like them. But this post isn't about my femme desires. This is about something else. 

My cousin Robert and his bride, made a short appearance at his mother's house with his new bride and while there he took me up to his old bedroom to give me a gift. And what a gift it was. It was his first record player. An old red and cream coloured Dansette. And with it a box of 45rpm singles. Wow! What an amazing thing to be given. I couldn't wait to play records on it, but my Mum said I had to wait until we got back home to Cornwall, the following week to use it. I also had to share it with my younger sister. As we had travelled from Cornwall to Chester on the train, my cousin had arranged to get it shipped down to Cornwall by courier for us. 

When we got back to Cornwall a week later, the record player had already arrived. I hurriedly took it out of the box and plugged it in. Research has since revealed that it was a Dansette Bermuda model in claret and cream. I eagerly opened the box of records. Mmm, a little disappointing. Lots of David Cassidy and Donny Osmand records and a few early records by The Sweet and Suzi Quattro. There was even, 'What A Wonderful World' by Louis Armstrong. The Sweet and Suzi Quattro records were ok. Actually the b-sides of the Sweet records were quite good. Proper hard rock. And there was two records in the box that I loved. Both by The Electric Light Orchestra. '10538 Overture' and 'Roll Over Beethoven'. I played those two records to death for a couple of weeks. 

We had only moved to this part of Cornwall  from another area, a few months before, and I had just become friends with Mark, the lad who lived next door. He was a couple of years older than me. He had an older brother, Chris, who was 18. Chris was a big music fan, into prog rock. Mark's dad was into Queen and Pink Floyd. Mark was also getting into prog rock as well.  And they had a state of the art Bang & Olafson music centre. So I was beginning to listen to prog rock with Mark, as he raided his brother's and dad's record collection.  Prog didn't feature much in the UK Singles Top 40 back then. But one prog rock song did start to get a lot of airplay on Radio 1 in the August of that baking hot year. And it put a sound to an image I was familiar with. 

Mark had recently persuaded me to start attending the local youth club. His brother Chris had been an attendee in the past and was now helping out. He was an aspiring artist and had painted fantasy murals on the walls. And he had also put up posters of bands. And one of these bands was Manfred Mann's Earth Band. I'd never heard of them. But within days,  they were being played in heavy rotation on Radio 1. The song was 'Blinded By The Light'. I loved it's keyboard heavy sound and it's lyrics sounded so exotic. Crazy even. I had to have it. I had just got enough pocket money to buy one 45rpm single. And it had to be this one. 

One Saturday morning after I had taken my little sister to the children's cinema club, we walked down to a shop called E.T.S. It was an electrical goods store. And it had a sign saying "RECORD DEPT UPSTAIRS". To make it fair for my little sister, she had been given a pound to buy a record too. So we eagerly entered the shop and made our way up the stairs. Once up there, we were met by racks of albums. The only singles on display were the current Top 10. But there was chart with the Top 100 listed on the wall next to them. Albums were £4.99 each. Way out of my price range. But singles were just 99p.  Abba were at Number 1 with 'Dancing Queen'. Nothing in the Top 10 interested me. The record I wanted was at Number 26. 'Blinded By The Light'. I asked the rather stuffy looking gentleman behind the counter if he had it, and he rather indignantly replied "Of course" and looked at the chart, noted it's position and produced it from a box marked 26. I hastily handed over my quid and into my shaking, excited hand came my first ever record and a penny change. My sister chose to buy 'Dancing Queen' so she could say her record was better than mine because it's Number 1. It would have served her right if it was rubbish. But it's actually rather good. But chart positions didn't matter to me that day. I had the record I wanted. 

When I got home I listened to several times in a row before letting my sister play her ABBA record. She did the same with hers. It was either 'Blinded By The Light' or 'Dancing Queen'. It must have driven our parents mad!

With my own copy of the single to play over and over, I could study the lyrics. And boy, were they weird! The label said the song was written by Bruce Springsteen. I assumed he must be one of the band. I can remember me and Mark asking his brother, which one of the men on the poster in the youth club was Bruce Springsteen? He just laughed at us. Bruce Springsteen might have just broken through in the USA as 'The Boss' but it would be another 3 years before he became more than a cult act here in the UK. 

I didn't even know what a cover version was. In hindsight, I should have spotted that neither Chuck Berry or Beethoven were members of The Electric Light Orchestra, on 'Roll Over Beethoven', as credited songwriters. 

The lyrics had strange lines like, "Revved up like a doosh". And my favourite verse.

Some silicone sister with a manager mister
Told me I got what it takes
She said, "I'll turn you on, son, into something strong
Play the song with the funky break"
And go-kart Mozart was checkin' out the weather chart
To see if it was safe outside
And little Early-Pearly came by in his curly-wurly
And asked me if I needed a ride

What the hell was that about? It would take years to figure part of it out. And some of it still doesn't make sense. But it sounded great. 

Incidentally "Doosh" was supposed to be "Deuce" as in an American hot rod car. That's Springsteen's lyric. A misplaced microphone in the studio made the Manfred Mann version sound like "Doosh" which sounds like Douche. An item to clean out a vagina. Springsteen thought they'd rewritten the lyrics as an insult and was very angry. The band were told not to release the record in America because of the connotations of that one misrecorded word. They went ahead and it went to Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. A massive achievement. Something Springsteen himself hadn't done to that point in his career. And something he still hasn't achieved six decades into his illustrious career. Here in the UK it peaked at Number 6, a chart position they would equal two years later with a cover version of The Band's 'Davy's On The Road Again', so their joint biggest hit.

As first records go, it's quite a cool one. Especially at that tender age. I could have bought a record by The Wombles!

So that's how I began my long record buying adventure, 50 years ago. With 99p and an old Dansette.