The Jam In 1982 – Picture by Neil Twink Tinning, CC BY 2.5
Over that seasonal holiday 1982 into 1983, there are several references in my diary to taping and cataloguing tapes at Keele.
The fact that I have kept those catalogues provides me with some clues:
My Bruneian flatmate, Hamzah, had a pretty decent stereo system and a “not so bad” collection of records. Not all my taste, but eclectic. That Christmas, I think he went down early to stay with friends in London and gave me licence to listen to and tape whichever of his albums I fancied.
Veera Bachra, who lived in the flat opposite ours, I think stuck around a while longer and contributed a few albums to my recording session, as did Kev Davis, who is mentioned in my diary during that post term period in December 1982.
The result was some interesting additions to my cassette collection.
But ahead of those, I notice three cassette tapes that I “bought” (or more probably sent away for having collected a sufficiency of vouchers) from Duracell. I still have those cassettes and each of them contained at least one or two tracks that I really liked and previously lacked. I believe I acquired those during that term.
I’ll write about the Comedy Classics tapes separately. I had been working on those the previous summer and I think I completed them (or at least brought them up to Keele) after a visit to my parents during that autumn term. Alan Gorman and I listened to those tapes a lot – especially certain bits of them. As did Liza O’Connor.
Making Movies and Love Over Gold by Dire Straits were huge hits – the latter very much part of my sound track of that autumn term, as Hamzah played the album a lot. Here’s one of the best known tracks:
Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mine – The Doors compilation album – added to my little collection of their wonderful work, as did Veera’s The Doors Vol 2. I seem to recall hearing Riders On the Storm emanating from Hamzah’s room a lot in Barnes L54.
Of all those “Hamzah and Veera” records I got into that winter, I particularly remember enjoying Handsworth Revolution by Steele Pulse. It had sort of passed me by when it came out a few years earlier, but i caught up with it good and proper that winter. Here’s one especially good track – Prodigal Son, performed live:
In truth I listened to East Side Story by Squeeze a lot less, but I did (and still) like several songs from that album, including this one:
Hypnotised by The Undertones was another album that passed me by at the time, but, thanks to Veera, I caught up with it (and it with me) in late 1982. Here’s one choice track:
The Gift by The Jam was a super album, containing hits and some excellent album tracks too. I especially liked this funky track – Precious:
The Jam was actually in most of our thoughts that Christmas, having been topping the charts with Beat Surrender, before that song surrendered to Renee & Renato – I won’t torture you with the latter:
I would have sworn I ripped Abbey Road from Liza’s collection of Beatles albums, but it seems it was from Hamzah’s. There’s something:
I don’t think I listened much to Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, nor The Raven by The Stranglers. But I did have a soft spot for Messages from the former…
…while Don’t Bring Harry reminded me of my earlier Keele existence in Lindsay F Block, where “Mad Harry” held sway:
I did listen a lot to Forever Changes by Love, nearly wearing out the tape listening to Alone Again Or, which I still rate as a truly great track:
Bat Out Of Hell by Meatloaf just struck me as one of those albums that I lacked, despite it’s sounds having been following me around since my school years. This was probably my favourite track from that album:
Kev Davis had introduced me to some pockets of reggae that had escaped my attention. Red by Black Uhuru was one such excellent album. I listened to it a lot at that time.
I subsequently got into Al Stewart’s Year Of the Cat album far more than Time Passages, but the latter was in Hamzah’s collection. The title track follows – sort of appropriate for a “soundtrack of forty years on” posting: