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Rock History & Me #3: An Affair With Caroline
The four of us sat at a small table in the college refectory, Cheltenham Charlie putting together another of his daft looking skinny roll-ups. “Can you actually taste anything in that matchstick?”, says John Mayes, aka Daisy. “Man yeah. My saviour” Daisy and Sylvo shake their heads and grin, Cheltenham Charlie drags on the tiny fag, oblivious. “They’ve put “Wardrobe” out as a single”, he drawled. “What? Really?” This didn’t seem right. Prog rock bands – proper prog rock bands – didn’t put singles out, it was unwritten law. Maybe Cheltenham Charlie had got it wrong. “Where’d you hear that shit?”, I asked. “Radio Caroline”. Until that lecture break at…
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Rock History & Me #2: Foxtrot
In the summer of 1973, glam rock was still in its pomp with the charts full of Chinn-Chapman productions and the TV screens bringing outrageous sequinned costumes and equally outrageous hairstyles into our living rooms. Each new release by the likes of T Rex, Sweet, Slade, Mud, Roxy Music and (dare we say it) Gary Glitter was eagerly awaited and then thrust immediately into maximum radio airplay. Best of all for me, I’d left behind the schooldays which I’d grown to despise and at 16 felt more than ready to be out earning a living instead of listening to the dullard individuals who called themselves schoolteachers. I felt a heady…
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Rock History & Me #1: Ziggy Stardust
During this period of having no new travel stories, I’m drawn to write about another passion; Michaela isn’t convinced, but encouraged both by my sense of self indulgence and our fellow blogger Leighton Thomas at leightontravelsblogs.wordpress.com I’m pressing on….. #1: Ziggy Stardust As I took my seat on the sofa for the weekly Thursday night ritual of watching Top Of The Pops, I had no inkling of what was about to unfold. Within a few minutes I was transfixed, deaf to my parents’ disapproval, hooked instantly not only to the music but to this unworldly being and his ethereal lyrics. At each chorus, these two men would put arms around…
