My Influences

The first song I can remember hearing and liking was a song called ‘If I had a hammer’ by Peter, Paul and Mary, the year was 1962 and I was four years old. Later that year and through 1963 the Beatles came along and I can remember watching the television news and seeing the girls screaming and the Beatles running, always running, from the car to the concert hall, back into the car, then into the hotel. They’ve stopped running now of course and all that’s left are the songs, but they’re brilliant aren’t they? If you don’t think so then stop reading now because were just not going to be on the same wavelength are we? The songs were so catchy and I remember we sang them in the playground back then and I think people will still be singing them for centuries to come. After a brief flirtation with the Monkees the next person to make an impression was Elvis. Although he was around before the Beatles it was a bit before my time so I didn’t know about him. It was through his films that used to appear on television that I got to hear him and though I can’t claim to be a big fan I have to acknowledge the impact he had on music and pop culture was immense.

At this time even though I liked music I wasn’t a record buyer (not having money was a problem). We usually tape recorded top of the pops onto a large cumbersome tape recorder and re-recorded over and over again, one song I remember we recorded was called ‘Ground Control To Major Tom’, at the time, that’s what I thought it was called and I wasn’t really sure who it was by (little did I know it would turn out to be my favourite artist of all time). When I did start getting some pocket money the first record I bought was ‘If paradise is half as nice’ by Amen Corner. I remember liking the Rolling Stones (I bought ‘Brown Sugar’) and T.Rex were also a favoured band. Then it happened, watching David Bowie on Top of the Pops singing ‘Starman’ he draped his arm over guitarist Mick Ronson and pointed his finger at the camera and sang ‘I had to phone someone, so I picked on you, oo, oo’ and I knew he meant me and from that moment I was hooked.

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It was through being a Bowie fan that I got into Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground and Iggy Pop. After I left school and started work and started getting paid I used to go to town nearly every week and buy records by lots of different bands, Queen, early Genesis the Stones and the Beatles and many others but Bowie was always the number one in my book. In my opinion I don’t think any other artist has recorded so many consecutive (9) classic albums as him from ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ in 1971 to ‘Heroes’ in 1977. It was in 1977 that Punk Rock came around and of course that made a big impact on me as well. I’d been reading about it in the music press throughout 1976 and was impressed by the attitude of making music with little musical skill (I had none) and to a degree the visual impact and style of Punk (it was I guess the same shocking impact that Bowie made). None of the bands had recording contracts, which was one of the main gripes of the bands that major record companies wouldn’t take a chance with new bands. Punk couldn’t stay in its infancy forever of course and only the bands that improved went on to achieve anything worthwhile. I don’t really listen to my old punk records that much but I do get a few favourites out now and again and of course turn the volume right up. But the punk period was great for seeing bands live in small venues and that was a lot of fun if you didn’t mind getting covered in spit, beer and other crap that was thrown around at the gigs. The first punk band I saw was the Damned I was on my own and I went along because of what I had been reading in the music press and because they were supporting T. Rex, who were in decline at that point but to see Marc Bolan play was a draw, but it was the Damned’s album that I went out and bought. The rest of the seventies were spent watching most of the major punk bands and forming our own, the ‘Pork Sirens’. The history of which, you can read elsewhere if you’re inclined.

When the eighties came along music in my opinion took a dive and even Bowie lost some of his magic (though he reached a commercial peek in that decade with albums like ‘Lets Dance’). I lost interest in music in this period, but as the decade drew to a close grunge bands started to immerge like Nirvana which was like punk rock in lumber jackets but they were bands that had obviously listened to the same music I had, even though they were several years younger than me, it was rock pushing the envelope and exciting people once again. I think there was an improvement in music in the nineties with more guitar bands around and even Bowie came back strong with his ‘1. Outside’ album, which I think is awesome.

There are still a lot of good bands around to-day like the ‘White Stripes’ and the ‘Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ and of course the ‘Pork Sirens’ (joke) who are using the punk ethic of making their own music and remaining ‘underground’ and below the radar with just a few ‘in the know’, because that’s how it is, that’s how it was, and that’s how it was meant to be. Well that’s all folks, I’ve had enough of tapping on this bloody keyboard and my finger hurts, so go and form a band, turn the volume up and enjoy your selves.

Goodbye.

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Hughie