[Glice]

My house always had music on. The earliest albums I like I can't remember so well (apart from Jim Reeves' Bimbo - I still like it, doubt any of you schleps would). My old dear would play a whole world of country - no Johnny Cash, but plenty of Dolly, Tammy, Patsy, Hank, Nelson, Rogers and a millions compilations - and Irish... y'know, the old tapes that still live around the house and you never know who's singing but remember the song. My old man would listen to Meatloaf and 80s soft rock, which took me ages to get, but makes a bit more sense these days. My sister would play lots of gay pop (from which I get my current Erasure obsession, and also makes sense of the Industrial thing). And my brother was into the first wave of British punk (I think he still things new wave is a bit gay) and plenty of reggae. I was very, very lucky, methinks. Unlike a lot of people (and this is going to sound like a wankerish boast) I was pretty much bored of punk by the time I hit puberty.

The first records I remember buying with my own money were Menswear's Nuisance, Blur's Leisure, Echobelly's on, Gene's to see the lights and Elastica's elastica. So make of that what you will.