I was only 12 or 13 when I got this album. Until then I was mainly listening to mid 90s dance compilation tapes and the odd bit of Oasis and Blur. Remember hearing Common People, Disco 2000 and Mis-shapes on the radio and really wanting to hear more of them. I bought the Mis-shapes/Sorted For E's and Whizz single on cassette initially and got the album after. It was the first album I ever owned that I wasn't comfortable about listening to around my parents. I didn't really get half of it myself at the time but that didn't deter me.
Generation Terrorists - Manic Street Preachers
A little after getting into Pulp Everything Must Go by the Manics was released, wasn't too taken with them the first time I heard them, I didn't get Design For Life at all, it wasn't until the Everything Must Go single was released that I started to like them. Bought Generation Terrorists and Gold Against The Soul a little while after not knowing much about them as a band yet still and having no previous knowledge of the albums. I couldn't get into Generation Terrorists initally, quite liked Gold Against The Soul but it wasn't really the kind of music I was into at that point. Then I remember my best friend at the time was telling me at school that he'd listened to this brilliant Manics song called Stay Beautiful off their first album. I went home that night and skipped to that track. It just clicked that time. I went back to the beginning of the album and listened from the start and just got it. Little Baby Nothing jumped out at me next, and then I was off.
I spent the next five years just consuming everything I could to do with the Manics. Went through a Holy Bible period, bought as many of their singles as I could find at record fairs and later on ebay (in the pre-download age, if you didn't own the physical cd singles you never got to hear the b-sides). I read loads of books they referenced and listened to all the bands they talked about. They got me out of my britpop bubble and listening to The Clash, the Sex Pistols, The Cure. I was completely hooked.
Up The Bracket - The Libertines
Utterly fantastic band, utterly fantastic album. They blew my love of music pretty much wide open, their gigs were the greatest gigs I've ever attended and they just took their influences from everywhere. The Manics wore their influences on their sleeves whereas the Libertines were much more subtle yet at the same time very blatent. Where the Manics took in certain bands and influences and rejected others quite fiercely the Libertines just took everything in. So it fully rounded off my musical taste, it made me want to delve deeply into 70s punk, The Smiths and Morrissey, 60s guitar pop. Through Libertines connected clubnights and other bands I got into such a wide range of music, met loads of people and just completely lived it for a couple of years.
I'm pretty sure I'll have new bands and albums that I really love in the future but those three albums are the only ones that had a massive impact on my life other than me just liking the music a lot. I don't think any other bands in the future ever will either. These things only mean as much in your formative years.
No comments:
Post a Comment