Hi I’m Ian – owner of the ‘attic’ in which the music resides.
A Nottingham lad, born and bred I now live with my lovely wife Caroline in the village of Lymm in Cheshire, England – roughly half way between the legendary musical cities of Liverpool and Manchester.
I’ve never had kids of my own but I became a proud stepdad to two awesome teenagers after meeting Caroline in 2005. Both boys are now proper ‘adults’ (most of the time) and have followed in their REAL dad’s footsteps to forge successful careers in the music industry. Please check out Youngr and Lornae when you get a minute.
To give you a bit of background about me, I celebrated my half century in 2017 so I’ve been around the block a bit. I’ve never been a musician myself (unless being a snare drummer in the Boys Brigade counts?) but I’ve had a love of all things music since I was a young child. Not one to throw things away easily I have also 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 by Slade, Sweet or Wizzard (instead of a toy) during the Friday ‘big shop’ or being fascinated by Top of the Pops on Thursday nights. My dad, god rest his soul, 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 and post-punk during my early teens. Space rock and psychedelia followed during my errr… ‘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 ‘rock’ 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 and metal vinyl and tape collection would now be supplemented with CDs from whole host of different genres. I was just 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 by 2020 (when I started this little ‘lockdown project’) and now in my mid-50s I had a head full of memories and an attic full of music related artefacts to share with you. This website / 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..
Thanks for reading.