Did you ever like a band that absolutely no one else you knew liked? Or vice versa hated a band that everyone else loved? When we were kids, such things were really important either as a way to establish your outsider status, or to show which gang you empathised with.
Being a rock kid. With an increasingly expanding knowledge of music, it was important to me to be able to express that through my record choices. This will sound incredibly snobby and defensive but I couldn't be seen to like a band that everyone else liked. Not that I couldn’t acknowledge their best work - remember I was a big Deep Purple fan - but I couldn't be seen with a mainstream record like Made In Japan, as good as it was. Stupid, I know. I seem to have been very self-consciously trying to create an image of myself as a kind of well-read student of the genre. Being part of the ‘rock lads’ group was good for that.
A Budgie album was about as mainstream as I got. I was quite famous for coming to school with an obscure record which would get a track played at lunchtime and instantly decried by those who didn’t appreciate my developing eclectic tastes. Records such as my favourite Wizards Of Kansas was too psychedelic for most, Faust too was a bit of a no-no and Henry Cow or the Global Village Trucking Co. was just too arty or hippy.
Funny really because artists like Steve Hillage or Snafu were very much welcomed but my tastes were just too wide I think,especially when it came to jazz-rock. I still remember the horror that greeted my Solar Fire by Nucleus record and Colosseum’s Daughter Of Time. In fact it became a running joke that I liked records with saxophones on.
On the other hand, there were acclaimed records which I had to stand against one was Out Of The Blue by ELO which was generally acclaimed but I took against for absolutely no good reason. Early ELO was cool but this was too commercial. Stupid isn’t it? Similarly mid-70s Ericv Clapton records seemed weak to me despite everyone else thinking differently. Actually I still think I was right. They all got a bit milky for me.
Because most of our music listening, at least some of the time, was very public, I was very conscious that records said something about me and at a time when you’re trying to establish your place in the world, that was quite important.
A few kids, all boys, were similarly inspired but most were either intimidated or cynical. It took me years to shed this attitude completely, so deeply ingrained did it become.
