Liquorice Pizza

Five bucks was what I got for pocketmoney in the 80s, and as funny as that sounds, it really wasn't bad. You see, I was into music, in a big way.

I'd constantly look out for new stuff. I'd watch "Sounds" on Channel Seven, "Countdown"
on ABC, "Rock around the World" on SBS, "Wavelength" on... Nine? "Wonder World"... Yes Simon did play the odd video or two.

I'd also listen to the radio.

Then I'd write down all the songs I wanted and try to convince Dad to take me to one of several record shops, and hope, really hope that the record was in. but more often it wasn't, because it was too new and the people at the shop hadn't heard of it... though they would in a few weeks when it caught on, which it often did.

I tended to be weeks and sometimes months ahead of the average music fan, something I was quite proud of.

My record collection really grew.

Though I had many more singles because... I could get three for that five bucks early on, while an Album cost sonsiderably more and probably only have one or two tracks that I actually wanted. It was a fairly rare case when I bought an album.

Then CDs started to appear, and naturally I couldn't wait to get one.

The first time I heard one was at The School of Audio Engineering in Inkerman Street St. Kilda. One of the students, I think, Bought one of the really large players in.
They were about as big as a VCR, and heavy too, and worth a couple of grand.

Connected to it was a very nice amp, and a couple of really nice studio speakers.

They were playing Joni Mitchell on it, She was strumming the guitar and singing about paving paradise and oh how clear it was, like she was in the room with us.

They also had Thriller, and that was stunning. In all honesty I think Thriller sounded better than any other CD I eventually bought home.

My first CD player was bought for me unexpectedly, while on holiday at Tweed Heads.
The very first portable CD player, The Sony D-50, one of my favourite things and although it was repaired, it still works.

I couldn't wait to try it at the Motel we were staying at, but I had no headphones and it had no speakers... those were sold seperately. ARRGGHHHHH!!!

I had bought Jean Michel Jarre's "Equinox" from a record shop nearby and could only watch it spinning inside the machine.

At home I had already assembled a small collection, Madonnas first album, Thriller and The Eurythmics "Touch" Album.

When I got home, the first thing I did was grab my bud headphones from my walkman and put Thriller on... I still remember how it was to listen to that amazing door creak sound at the end of Thriller.

My Neice and Nephew were desperate to try out the new toy too.

It had taken me a few weeks of saving up, My pocket money had increased somewhat since the early days so it didn't take long to save for this disc.

I desperately wanted to look at it, it was my first CD ever... so once it was payed for, I tore off the plastic and battled with the wierd plastic cover which I didn't understand how to open, and there inside, as we were going up the escalators, was the most amazing looking thing, full of rainbows.

My Vinyl was suddenly old hat, and though I still loved it, I tried not to buy as much, the CDs were just too good.

But the problem was that they just didn't sell CD singles then... Well they did in the US but not here. And as I said, I prefered singles over albums.

If a band had more than three hits, I'd go for the CD... a rough guide anyway.

But due to my DJing at 3-RIM-FM in Melton, I had to keep buying vinyl singles, but that was ok.

CD singles did begin to appear, and once they took hold, I stopped buying vinyl completely.

The transistion wasn't too difficult, CD singles were actually the same as 12" singles, which I'd started buying instead of 7" singles, whenever possible.

Anyway, I ended up with quite a large collection of CDs.

These days there are mp3s, and while they don't sound anywhere near as good as CDs did, and I think they're certainly more environmentally friendly... there's no love.

They're just files on a computer, which is dead boring.

There was quite a lot of love for CDs, but I think what made it go stale was the crappy little cases, and the bit of flimsy paper inside instead of the wonderful huge album covers we had earlier... and the fact they were stuck on every other magazine and also ended up as junk mail in my letterbox.

Discs were worse than Tribbles
While I had liked them, they were just everywhere now and seemed more like nuisance value... but yes, I still value the real ones with the good stuff on them.

Vinyl had all the love, I had to treat each record like a baby, to preserve it's sound and stop it getting scratched, having a heart attack if I ever dropped one, and it was a definate no-go-zone for my Neice.

And I had quite a few collectors items, coloured vinyl, rare releases etc.

I still have every one of them, and yet, no record player at all.

Wolfie!