1989

1989 and the era now known as "the second summer of love" was in full swing. Acid House music had infiltrated the clubs, the charts, and the culture. Unlicensed raves were taking place in abandoned warehouses and industrial sites, before being driven into the countryside by police raids. Fuelled by not only the music but vast quantities of MDMA (or Ecstacy as it became more commonly known), people of all backgrounds would gather to dance all night long in a euphoric explosion of love, peace and electronic beats. The influence of this new youth cult spread was far and wide, spreading through fashion, literature, art, films, and becoming a key part of the baggy/Madchester scene that would come soon after. Attitudes and lifestyles changed the way nightclubs were run in the UK, and the Balearic island of Ibiza became a hotspot for thousands of young people looking for a hedonistic holiday.

Not that any of this impacted of the life of a shy 12 year old sat in his bedroom in a small declining former mining town in the East Midlands, whose spare time was spent listening to and obsessing over music. The tie-dye baggy fashions of the rave explosion passed me by, and whilst i thrilled to the dance sounds increasingly hitting the Top 40 i was far too young to "get it", in addition to being overwhelmingly uncool. 1989 was an important year for me in one aspect though: i had my own income for the first time. My parents decided to give me weekly pocket money at the beginning of the year, and i would later have a paper round. All this meant that i could at last start buying my own records, and i wasted no time in heading to the local record shop to spend it on 7"s. I remember it like it was yesterday: heading to Frank Sissons in the high street with a mate, perusing the Top 75 pinned to the wall that they cut out from the weekly music retailer paper Music Weekly, before marching to the small counter to hand over my £2. Whilst the short-skirted young woman behind the counter went to retrieve my selection from the shelving - and in the process managing to give us a flash of underwear, no doubt causing a couple of young pre-teens to turn beetroot faced - i looked at the wall adorned with posters, advertisements for albums and singles by acts i only had a passing knowledge of, awestruck by the possiblities of owning them myself one day, wondering what they sounded like.

When the assistant handed over my purchase i felt a surge of excitement and pride, as if the act of buying a record without my parents being there meant that i suddenly become more grown up. Once my mate had bought his choice we wasted no time in heading back to his house to hear the music. The first record i bought myself, the real beginning to my collection, went on the turntable and as the needle made that familiar bump i've no doubt a huge smile would have spread across my face. 

ROBERT HOWARD & KYM MAZELLE - WAIT! 

A collaboration between Robert Howard - aka Dr Robert, lead singer of politically inclined sophisti-pop band The Blow Monkeys - and American R&B/soul/house vocalist Kym Mazelle, it blended pop nous with house beats and funky piano breakdowns, reaching No.7 in January 1989. It's still a favourite of mine, although i no longer have the vinyl. I was less interested in the remix on the b-side at the time, or in the music of either Howard or Mazelle outside of this song, although i have discovered the music of The Blow Monkeys since.