Category: 51 for 50

Funnily enough, although the late teens were about guitar music, my university years saw me start to get back into electronica and hip hop. The Orb’s amazing ambient work Adventure’s Beyond the Ultraworld was one of the pieces of music that helped me on that journey. When I started at Loughborough, I was super keen … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 1991

If there’s one album that perfectly encapsulates the guitar music of Britain’s indie scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic is it. Jangly, cute, poppy but maybe slightly sad. It was music like this that led me into my University days up in Loughborough. https://open.spotify.com/album/6CmJJCI3lOn5XVZ68hP9kY You can see the #51for50 … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 1990

The final of the late 1980s trilogy is The The’s Mindbomb, Matt Johnson’s fourth album and to my mind his best. Working with Johnny Marr, late of The Smiths, created a wonderful piece of work, sensual and political. Quiet and loud. Structured and abstract. At the end of my first attempt at A Levels, I … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 1989

A work of staggering beauty is how I ended my thoughts about the first album on my late-80s trilogy, and it’s how I view the second. Spirit of Eden is an incredible piece of music, the product of vast amounts of time and effort (and money, if the reports are to be believed). I don’t … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 1988

Doing this exercise has made me realise that there is a bit of a bell curve of albums of importance in my life that peaks around my late teens. That’s hardly surprising, I guess - I imagine it’s the same for many of us. Making decisions about which one album should be included in the … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 1987

There are a couple of proper full-on legends in music that I’ve seen live. One was Leonard Bernstein, who I saw conduct at a BBC Prom in the late 1980s at the Royal Albert Hall. The other, twice, was trumpeter Miles Davis. He was a brooding presence on stage, the centre of attention in sparkly … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 1986

In the summer of (I think) 1987 I went up to Yorkshire to spend a week on a thing called Musicamp. Organised by a music teacher and brass player called Mortimer Rhind-Tutt (I’m assuming some sort of relation of the actor Julian), a bunch of kids from the Watford and Maidenhead areas got together to … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 1985

In 1984 a Fairlight Computer Musical Instrument would have set you back about as much as a house. The Australian-built sampler was the stuff of legend, dreams and Trevor Horn. In the hands of the Art of Noise, it could turn out pop hits like Close (To The Edit) and Moments in Love, but some … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 1984

I’m not sure if you could love Billy Bragg’s work without being somehow aligned to his politics. But his love songs are a triumph too, often overlooked. For me, Peak Billy is probably his wonderful Worker’s Playtime, but as we will see that came out in a time that was packed with music in my … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 1983

In my teens I got involved with a band. I can't quite remember how the initial contact was made, but somehow I was the saxophonist for Secret Fascination. There was a lead singer who was called John, but his real name was Chris (although it might have been the other way around). There was another … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 1982