I passed a milestone birthday recently. I am not going to say how old I am but let’s just say it has a five in the number and leave it at that, shall we? And being of a certain age I find myself regularly caught in the generational language gap;
“Album?!” my children would say with a sneering tone, “Isn’t that what you put pictures in?”
But that’s what we bought. Albums. Well, not when we were buying singles, of course. I remember very clearly the first album I bought with my own money (“Sladest” by Noddy Holder’s Slade, in case you are wondering. How about you?). My first single was Mud’s “Tiger Feet”. Interestingly, I don’t remember the first CD I bought, though I suspect it may have been something by Dire Straits. And what must be now immediately apparent from this is that my musical tastes did not improve in the intervening years. But that isn’t my point.
When I was 14 or 15 I heard an album that belonged to the older brother of a friend. The very next day I took a bus into town and, with a scraped-together combination of record tokens and cash, I went to Woolworths and bought my very own copy. There was nothing like a new album, was there? The jacket with its unknown treasures – pictures from the studio recording sessions or song lyrics – and the virgin white of the sleeve that protected the precious disc inside. Moving the slider from 45rpm to 33rpm, then then the prickle of anticipation as the needle touched the new vinyl and the speaker on the portable HMV record player hummed and crackled into life. I almost wore that record out. All my friends had a copy. Every girlfriend I ever dated had a copy. I have subsequently bought it on CD and mini disk and if I had been just a few years older at the time I might even have bought it on 8-Track! I have even recently purchased the digitally remastered 35th anniversary version from Amazon – highly recommended! This album sold more than 40 Million copies worldwide and is, apparently, the fourth highest seller of all time. Do you know what it is yet?
Of course you do! “Rumours” by Fleetwood Mac. Was that the sound of foreheads being slapped?
Everyone has their favourite song of course. Mine is probably “Don’t Stop” but I would be happy to debate the merits of “The Chain”. As an aside it is worth noting the middle instrumental of “The Chain” became known to a much wider audience when it was used by Aunty Beeb as the theme for their Formula One coverage!
Anyway, imagine my surprise when our contracting guru Karen dropped into conversation that she was thinking of putting some packages together to see Fleetwood Mac in Las Vegas – CLICK here for more information or give one of experts a call to discuss it on 0800 316 3012. The short break is around New Year 2013 and would be the perfect gift for people of a certain age. Like me, in fact. Please. Pretty please.
As you can probably imagine this will sell out quickly so if you interested please contact us very soon.
Phil Newcombe is a Director of Bon Voyage.