Phonic Underground

Ever shoplift in Pride and Joy?, that’s what the locals liked to do.

Super Trouper 7", John Menzies, I gave my dad the requisite 50p and he went downstairs to get it for me but once he'd gone I changed my mind and decided I wanted some sweets instead. Very vivid memory. Anyway, it was too late and my pop music collection began.

The Police, Zenyatta Mondatta album cover.

Can’t remember if I bought this in Our Price or Woolworths.

I'm too young for records - cassette tapes all the way. Croydon HMV.

Bought in a supermarket in Germany.

My Mum made me sell it to my cousin.

[cringes self inside out]

First single - Video Killed The Radio Star
First album - Regatta De Blanc.

Autumn 1979 was a hell of a good time to be a nine year old buying his first records, I think.

Can't quite remember if it was Adamski's "Killer" or MC Tunes vs. 808 State's "The Only Rhyme That Bites" (they were both out at similar times). But any cool points were obliterated when I asked for Jive Bunny's album for Christmas

'Burning Bridges' by Status Quo, from the Morissions in Girlington, Bradford, in January 1989. I wanted to buy a single and that one seemed quite catchy when it was on Top of the Pops.

I considered buying 'Fine Time' by New Order instead. It had a great cover but I had no idea what it was.

No lying or making yourself out to be a cool kid.
Post the first record you bought.
If you can remember the shop or circumstances add that too. Local color appreciated.

WH Smiths Skipton, 2004ish, maybe £7.99?

I was almost certainly wearing vans, wide jeans past my feet and a quicksilver hoody

The Album 'Prince Charming' by Adam and the Ants

Almost certainly WH Smiths in Sutton Coldfield. As fascinated by the liner notes, photography, gatefold etc. as the music... who knew I'd end up a graphic designer?

I remember it was a Saturday morning and my dad took me into town (my dad NEVER went to town). We were in WH Smiths and he bought me this and a Disney magazine that had a story tape on it as well. I'd have been five.

Alas this one

Can’t Stand Me Now - The Libtertines
Virgin Records - Edinburgh
Probably about £3 but can’t be sure

No lying here.
I was trying to be a cool kid and failed.
Thought it was shite.
Never mentioned it to anyone.
An utter waste of time and bus money.

Second hand Help by the Beatles in 1966.

A Taste of Aggro by the Barron Knights. Purchased from Woolworths New Milton in 1978, during a visit to my Nanna. I had heard it played by Ed Stewpot Stewart on Junior Choice and thought it was hilariously funny. I later swapped it for my friend Barry’s copy of Mull of Kintyre.

First single, Massachusetts by the Bee Gees. Bought from local shop in Rock Ferry called the RLG in 1968.

First LP, Fire and Water by Free. Second hand from Skeleton records in Birkenhead 1970.

Stop The Cavalry by Jonah Lewie.
Massive during Christmas 198xx, bought for 79p from a ‘fancy goods’ shop - crystal swans and china animals - with a small record selection at the back, in Guisborough, North Yorkshire.
Bought most of my singles from a bargain shop that sold ex jukebox discs for 29p

First record bought for me was Olivia Newton John “Banks of the Ohio”. Got it from Santa, with a little record player! First record I bought was “Your the one that I want” Olivia Newton John and John Travolta.

There is a big gap in those years, but brother was into music so I just listened to his

This was the first album I bought with my own money.
I saw them recently at Colchester castle and they were amazing

I think I already owned a couple of records but this was the first one I bought with my own money. Ten or twenty pence from the bargain bin, upstairs in WH Smith in Grimsby.

Donny Osmond LP. I was a three and a half year old weenie bopper!

Co-bought this on cassette with my best friend at the old CNA in Rondebosch, Cape Town. I already owned two cassettes but those were presents - Pet Shop Boys' Discography (formative, wore it out) and the Cats cast recording (formative in the sense that it gave me a lifelong loathing of musicals)

Paid £1.55 for each of them at WH Smith in Central Milton Keynes on 31 December 1985, I still have them and I will not hear a word said against either.

Rage Against The Machine by Rage Against The Machine, HMV website circa 2004. It was the first online purchase anyone in my household had ever made so everyone gathered round to watch and there was much checking of the little padlock icon on the address bar.

Bought in Maidenhead WH Smith. Can't remember exactly what I paid for it, but I think maybe a fiver?

The Bookmark, Urmston, Jan/Feb 1972. Bought for 50p, aged 8, after being bedazzled by the Gibb bros on TotP.

Will have been consigned to the dustbin of history (or just the dustbin) in the ground zero purge of 1977/78.

Bought as a double cassette from Our Price on the top floor of the Royal Priors shopping centre in Leamington Spa. Right by the peacock clock. Can't remember how much it was, mind.

Sister took me into town in Belfast and she bought me actually.

Still counts though?

On holiday in Somerset, a record shop in Taunton, with £10 birthday money:

Madness - Absolutely (lp)

Tenpole Tudor- Swords of a Thousand Men

Adam and the Ants - Stand and Deliver

All bought at the same time

Dizzy by Vic Reeves and the Wonder Stuff. Probably from Smith's in Wigan (not WH Smiths). Cassette tape, which I've still got somewhere