The Story

Hello and welcome to Music In The Attic!

I was inspired to create this site during the covid lockdown of 2020 and following a rare venture up into the attic when I stumbled across some boxes containing old gig tickets, concert programmes, newspaper cuttings, vinyl records, cassette tapes, VHS video tapes, books, magazines and other music memorabilia that had been gathering dust for many years.

Part of the attic – April 2020

To put things into context, I’ve been around for a few years (celebrated my half century in 2017) and I’ve had a love of all things music since I was a young child. Not one to throw things away easily I have collected many musical artefacts over the years!

I was born in Nottingham, UK during the ‘summer of love’ in 1967 and by the early 70s I was getting my first musical fixes, whether it was my parents buying me a new chart single (instead of a toy) during the Friday ‘big shop’ or being mesmerised by Top of the Pops on Thursday nights when my dad made me a Gary Glitter suit out of tinfoil when I was 5 years old (ahem, anyway…moving on….!)

From here I later got a taste for classic rock and was listening to Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin from an unnaturally early age (I first taped a copy of ‘Made In Japan’ when I was just 9) before progressing through the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) era and a bit of punk during my early teens. Space rock and psychedelia followed during my ‘experimental’ period as well as 80’s glam and thrash metal during my late teens and early 20s. Then I landed at a crossroads in the Canary Islands in 1990 and something changed…

It was during a lads holiday to Tenerife in that year that I started opening my ears to more of the indie and dance oriented music, some of which I had been listening to for a few years but wouldn’t previously admit to liking. When you’ve nailed your colours to the ‘rocker’ mast at that age it is quite awkward to own up to actually liking The Smiths, New Order, Bob Marley, Curtis Mayfield or any of the incredible UK dance music that was coming out of the new club / rave scene emerging in the late 80s/early 90s. But the ‘new me’ positively embraced it all and I no longer cared what people thought…

1990 was was definitely a turning point in my life as far as my obsession with music is concerned. Once I’d bravely broken that metal mould (and got a haircut) the world now was my oyster. Having broken down the barriers this led me on to soul, funk, reggae and a whole variety of stuff. My impressive but largely ‘rock’ vinyl and tape collection would now be supplemented with CDs from whole host of different genres. I was as happy listening to the Isley Brothers as I was Iron Maiden. Soul II Soul would sit comfortably next to Slayer in my collection. And my annual pilgrimage to Castle Donington for the Monsters of Rock Festival (now Download) would eventually give way to Glastonbury – a festival I would attend for the next 20 years and which would provide me with some of the best live music experiences of my life. I have always been a bit of a hippy at heart and there at Glasto I discovered my spiritual home.

So here I am in 2020, now in my mid-50s and with a head full of memories and an attic full of artefacts to share with you. This blog may become a bit ‘random’ at times so please bear with me. It’s difficult to be niche with such an eclectic taste in music but I really hope you find something interesting here and stick around for a while..

Start HERE!

Ian

Me with my new Ferguson ‘Music Centre’ (and Rainbow’s Rising album) – Christmas 1978, aged 11

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