|
|
Post by John on Aug 16, 2024 13:46:39 GMT
A gateway to discovering new music can occur in a variety of circumstances. Picking my album choice has made me reflect on my personal gateways.
I guess my first Gateway would be Blue Oyster Cult some enchanted evening. After watching BOC on top of the pops I got the latest albums I liked the live version of Don't Fear the reaper. I then started researching the band and similar artists. I discovered I was a young heavy metal fan
Watching Diamond Head blow off April Wine at Hammersmith. By this time I was starting to go to gigs and becoming a fan encouraged me to go to smaller clubs.
Learning the guitar
This opens my ears to different styles of music such as jazz and gypsy jazz. It also allows me to appreciate people like Yngwie as much as someone like Carlton
Queensryche Operation Mindcrime Starts me looking for music that is deeper, whilst I was a fan of Rush before this at the time I just saw them as a one off and avoided the progressive rock classic albums.
Dr L Surbrahiam Global Fusion, opens my ears to exotic scales and the sound of the Tabla.
I think at present these seem the most pivotal moments.
What are your Gateway experiences to discovering different music.
|
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Aug 16, 2024 14:36:06 GMT
I'll have a proper think about that. In the early days, before the internet, I relied heavily on Melody Maker, New Musical Express and other music rags (later, Q magazine) for my research. I also went to the library for back issues. Plus going to record stores and chatting with the staff, who used to actually know their stuff.
|
|
|
|
Post by MikeMusic on Aug 16, 2024 15:10:06 GMT
Going back a long way I had the radio and there was very little else for a young teenager in the early 60s, so
The Chart show, or top 20 or whatever it was called back then
Emperor Roscoe
John Peel
were favourites but I listened to as much as I could, even Saville
Later on we had Top of the pops on TV !
Later still Ready Steady Go
Later teens and twenties Melody Maker and NME and I started going to gigs
|
|
|
|
Post by julesd68 on Aug 16, 2024 17:32:15 GMT
Back in the early 80's most of my vinyl buying was shaped by The Friday Rock Show with Tommy Vance. I would always listen in bed with a tape always ready to record the new releases.
|
|
|
|
Post by HD Music & Test on Aug 16, 2024 17:37:22 GMT
I would suggest that was a very common experiance Joolz
|
|
|
|
Post by Slinger on Aug 16, 2024 17:43:54 GMT
I'd say I was roughly the same as Mike, with large dollops of pirate radio in bed once it superceded Radio Luxembourg.
|
|
|
|
Post by MikeMusic on Aug 16, 2024 20:13:46 GMT
Yes, of course I forgot ! Duh
Radio Luxembourg, Radio London, Radio Caroline
|
|
|
|
Post by Slinger on Aug 16, 2024 20:22:51 GMT
Radio Monte Carlo was another great station on 205 medium wave iirc. It's where I first heard a track from Jethro Tull's "Crest of a Knave" and assumed it to be something from an unknown Dire Straits album until the DJ started on about Jethro Tull. I went out and bought it the following day.
Radio Monte Carlo also introduced me to Colosseum Live.
|
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Aug 16, 2024 22:25:00 GMT
Capital Radio in the early days with Nicky Horne and Your Mother Wouldn't Like It. I heard a lot of great music for the first time on that show, including Wish You Were Here.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on Aug 17, 2024 7:30:55 GMT
Seems for most of you the radio and magazines where the keys.
For me quite different. Whilst I read the magazines it would be more underground stuff. Radio never really was a gateway for me.
I was more of a searcher. I would score the record shops and listen to as much music as I could I would research through books. But getting into someone like Django would have come from reading a guitar magazine and then reading up about him in a library and then buying a tape or record.
The other was I was going to about 2 to 3 gigs a week and would often discover new bands at a gig.
|
|
|
|
Post by julesd68 on Aug 17, 2024 8:11:12 GMT
How could I forget reading Kerrang magazine? That introduced me to a heap of new music.
|
|
|
|
Post by MikeMusic on Aug 17, 2024 8:20:36 GMT
Radio Monte Carlo was another great station on 205 medium wave iirc. It's where I first heard a track from Jethro Tull's " Crest of a Knave" and assumed it to be something from an unknown Dire Straits album until the DJ started on about Jethro Tull. I went out and bought it the following day. Radio Monte Carlo also introduced me to Colosseum Live. Don't think I've ever heard of Radio Monte Carlo |
|
|
|
Post by John on Aug 17, 2024 8:40:11 GMT
How could I forget reading Kerrang magazine? That introduced me to a heap of new music. [br With me I bought kerrang but it was not a gateway for me I would say Metal Forces and some of the underground magazines. But I was discovering a lot more by just visiting Shades every week. In fact there was a time when Kerrang just was writing about stuff after I discovered it |
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Aug 17, 2024 10:11:23 GMT
Some gateway musical moments for me:
Playing Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Waters at my aunt's in Australia in 1971. I couldn't get enough of it.
Hearing and then buying Vivaldi's Four Seasons by Marriner and the ASMF while a sixth former, my very first classical album.
Listening to Tangerine Dream's Phaedra at a friend's house.
Borrowing Black Sabbath's Master of Reality from a school friend and falling for them immediately.
Then borrowing Hawkwind's Space Ritual from the same friend and falling for them, too.
Seeing Pink Floyd at Knebworth in 1985 and then hearing the full Wish You Were Here album on Capital Radio.
Going to the Proms with my girlfriend's dad and watching an old Eugen Jochum take total command of the VPO while leaning on a stool.
Watching Joanna McGregor, a British pianist, perform at the Sydney Opera House.
Listening to a live performance of Balinese Barong in Bali, the most jarring and inexplicable music I've ever heard.
Hearing Alison Goldfrapp perform at the Reading Hexagon and deciding it was one of, if not the very best, gig I've ever heard.
|
|
|
|
Post by Slinger on Aug 17, 2024 12:09:06 GMT
Another major gateway for me was the "Sampler" album. A low-priced hunk of vinyl used by record companies to display their wares, with one (or sometimes two) songs from an array of artists from their roster, This was my first, "Rockbuster" from CBS, for the princely sum of 29 shillings and eleven pennies for a double vinyl album. This one introduced me to Gary Moore, although I didn't know it at the time. He was a member of Skid Row (nothing to do with the more modern "Skid Row".
Side 1
1. Don and Dewey - It's A Beautiful Day (5:10)
2. Somethin' Comin' On - Blood, Sweat & Tears (4:33)
3. Excerpt from "Out-Bloody-Rageous" - Soft Machine (5:25)
4. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down - Miles Davis (2:49)
5. Uranian Circus - Flock (7:00)
6. Black Magic Woman - Santana (3:00)
Side 2
1. You Better Think Twice - Poco (3:17)
2. Time Machine - Mick Softley (5:00)
3. All Things- The Byrds (3:00)
4. Days of 49 - Bob Dylan (5:42)
5. Polly on The Shore- Trees (5:00)
6. In The Mud - Gary Farr (3:35)
Side 3
1. Where Are We Going Wrong - Argent (4:00)
2. Primrose Hill - Rock Workshop (5:20)
3. Mr Skin - Spirit (4:00)
4. Mary Clarke - Black Widow (5:30)
5. The Queen of Bad Intentions - Skin Alley (6:55)
6. To Mark Everywhere - Robert Wyatt (2:30)
Side 4
1. Crazy Cajun Cakewalk Band - Redbone (3:06)
2. Guess I'll Go Away - Johnny Winter (3:36)
3. Bootie Cooler - Shuggie Otis (2:41)
4. Don't Wait Too Long - New York Rock Ensemble (3:04)
5. An Awful Lot of Woman - Skid Row (2:00)
6. Staggolee - Pacific Gas & Electric (3:50)
7. Tobacco Road - Edgar Winter (4:00)
8. Country Road - Al Kooper (4:23)
That was closely followed by the Blue Horizon label's "How Blue Can We Get?" for the same price which cemented my adulation for the guitarist Stan Webb of Chicken Shack.
SIDE A
1. Fleetwood Mac - Watch Out
2. Jellybread - Don't Pay Them No Mind
3. Top Topham - Mini-Minor-Mo
4. Duster Bennett - What a Dream
5. Bacon Fat - Boom, Boom (Out Goes the Lights)
6. Chicken Shack - Evelyn
SIDE B
1. Christine Perfect - And That's Saying a Lot
2. Bacon Fat - Small's on 53rd
3. Fleetwood Mac - I'm Worriedlyrics
4. Chicken Shack - The Way It Is
5. Jellybread - No Brag, Just Facts (Parts 1 and 2)
6. Fleetwood Mac - Rambling Pony
SIDE C
1. Elmore James - Hand in Handlyrics
2. Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup - That's Alright
3. Magic Sam - All Your Love
4. Larry Johnson - Catfish Blues
5. Otis Spann - My Love Depends on You
6. Furry Lewis - Casey Jones
7. Champion Jack Dupree - Grandma (You're a Bit Too Slow)
SIDE D
1. George "Harmonica" Smith - No Time for Jive
2. Johnny Young - Deal the Cards
3. Roosevelt Holts - Little Bitty Woman
4. Bukka White - Bed Spring Blues
5. Joe Callicott- On My Last Go Round
6. Otis Rush - Jump Sister Bessie
There were many more, Bumpers and You Can All Join In, Nice Enough To Eat (Island), Picnic (A Breath Of Fresh Air) from Harvest, The Vertigo Annual, The Age of Atlantic, Garden of Delights from Elektra ...the list goes on.
I still play many of those artists to this day.
|
|
|
|
Post by Clive on Aug 17, 2024 19:34:11 GMT
Interesting thread.
My sister (departed) was 4.5 years older than me. I was therefore exposed to music that was before my time, eg Twinkle, early Stones, lots of early 60s music.
My mother played Chubby Checker / Let's Twist Again a lot. Aker Bilk…. Kenny Rogers / Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town (somewhat later than the rest).
I strongly recall going with my mother to collect my sister from White City Manchester, we went in and were there for the last 30 mins of the Stones belting out High Green Grass era music.
I had the “pleasure” of going to boarding school from age 11 - great workshops - foundry, metalwork, electronics. By the time I got to more senior school at around 14 years old, music was clearly important. I wasn’t up to date at that time. I took advice about what was current and bought a few LPs for the next academic year, eg Van der Graaf Gen / H to He, Groundhogs / Split, Genesis / Trespass, MC5 / Kick Out the Jams and others I don’t recall. I gained much cred with these albums.
Interestingly Bruce (Paul) Dickinson of Iron Maiden was a year behind me at school.
The “Rock Club” at school arranged a lot of gigs. The absolute standout was no less than Genesis with Gabriel dressed as a flower. Trespass era.
I then used to escape into London and Reading to watch Roxy Music (Fairfield Hall, Croydon), Ten Years After ( Reading Uni).
Those were my early years.
Several Reading Festivals and some Knebworths followed with super groups that would have cost a mortgage when they were still performing a few years ago. I saw them in their prime for reasonable money.
|
|
|
|
Post by Clive on Aug 19, 2024 11:31:55 GMT
One more thing to mention….it’s not a gateway moment but would have been had it worked out. One of our school gigs was to have been Queen, we booked them but they cancelled as they got the opportunity to play in Munich. Can’t blame them!
|
|
|
|
Post by John on Aug 19, 2024 11:41:47 GMT
That would have been an amazing memory
|
|
