My introduction to rock and roll music came when I heard “Rock Around the Clock”, sung by the late Bill Haley. The song was from the movie “The Blackboard Jungle” and was virtually the predecssor to all other rock songs that followed in that era.
I was hooked immediately, much to my late father’s disgust. With money I saved from my afternoon paper round, I purchased a small record player (monogram in those years) and a wide selection of new releases of budding stars of that era like Elvis, Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent and Roy Orbison to name a few.
My Dad was a classical music man through and through and after frequent arguments about the virtues, or lack of, of rock music, which he labelled devil music, we managed after quite a few years to come to an uneasy truce.
After the early years of following the music scene, (the 1950’s was mainly dominated by Rock and Roll music) the trend changed dramatically with the emergence of British rock in the form of Beatlemania with also a big following of the Rolling Stones, The Dave Clarke Five and Herman’s Hermits.
As the sixties wore on, (Marg and I were married in 1965) I started to listen to what I would term a more mature type of music whilst never losing my interest in good old rock and roll. Singers like Bob Seger, and Rod Stewart appeared on the scene as well as bands like The Who, The Spencer Davies Group, Cream, The Doors, Led Zeplin and Pink Floyd.
The 1970’s also saw the emergence of what was called the LA (Los Angeles) sound, with bands like The Eagles, Lynard Skynard, The Allman Brothers, and artists like Joe Walsh, Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, Don Henley and Linda Ronstadt are all the survivers from that era.
The careers of the aforementioned continued to blossom in the 1980’s and new solo artists as well as new bands became popular. Ballad singers such as Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young, Paul Simon, John Denver, Billy Joel and Gerry Rafferty were favourites of mine as well as rock artists like Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart and George Thorogood. I also become interested in blues music.
Eric Clapton, Joe Walsh, Neil Young and David Gilmour were big names in those years as well as old blues artists like BB King, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker.
When Mark was in his early teens he also shared my love for music and he and I (and later Craig) went to see nearly all the local and international stars who came here to perform in concerts. The ones who spring to memory are Eric Clapton (4 times), Dire Straits (5 times), Rod Stewart and Bob Dylan (3 times each), Elton John (twice), Billy Joel (twice), Neil Young (twice), Phil Collins (twice), Santana (twice), George Thorogood (three times).
Other concerts included The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, U2, The Eurythmics, BB King, Cold Chisel, Skyhooks, INXS, Pink Floyd, Linda Ronstadt, John Denver, Mick Jagger, Joe Satriani, The Police, Sting, Tom Petty, Joe Cocker, Jimmy Buffet, Brian Adams, Neil Diamond and in the years before I got married I saw Billy Haley And The Comets, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Johnnie O’Keefe, Gene Vincent and Roy Orbison.
As you can see, my music preferences vary somewhat, but I enjoy every type of music, depending on what particular mood strikes me at the time.
In the mid 1980’s the introduction of video players and cassettes saw a whole new aspect to music appear as we could now not only listen to music but also see the artists perform on the TV screen. How times have changed since the old twangy guitar sounds of Elvis Presley and early Chuck Berry records.
Speaking of records, or albums as they were more commonly know, went out of production in 1991 and were replaced by compact discs which are much clearer in sounds and cannot be worn out by the old record needle.