I’ve just passed my first year on Lastfm. There are two great things about it – discovering new music and sharing it with other people (thanks for all the shouts in the past 12 months guys).
This got me thinking about other ways I’ve discovered music down the years. Here’s how I got into some acts that have stayed with me down the years (and a few I've left behind):
My older brothers handed down tapes led me to
The Rolling Stones,
Neil Young and
The Moody Blues.
Borrowing from public libraries got me into
Pere Ubu,
The Velvet Underground,
The Doors,
Dory Previn and
Bob Dylan.
Listening to Capital Radio in the late ‘70s, especially Nicky Horne and Peter Young led me to:
John Cooper Clarke,
Ian Dury,
The Specials,
Bruce Springsteen.
Friends mixtapes, especially in the ‘80s, gave me:
Julian Cope,
Magazine,
The Monochrome Set,
Marillion
From John Peel in the ‘80s I got too many to count but he’s where I first heard:
The Fall (of course),
Shop Assistants,
Half Man Half Biscuit,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Nirvana,
Ivor Cutler and
John Fahey
Festivals and support slots have always held their surprises and led to my first encounters with (amongst others)
Phranc,
Robyn Hitchcock,
Grandaddy and
Tricky
These days, it’s BBC 6Music who’ve given me:
Howling Bells,
LCD Soundsystem,
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip,
Hot Chip.
And on to Lastfm:
Grateful Dead (OK, I knew who they were but I’d never sat and listened),
Okkervil River,
TISM,
Oingo Boingo,
Al Stewart and who knows what next.
I can't wait to find out