Your first album

[hobbes]

First album I bought was with my own money was Jam - Snap.
Before then I'd been bought Shakey by Shakin' Stevens one xmas.

I had a load of singles already though.

[3 Colours Red]

a red Aiwa personal stereo

Mine might have been an Aiwa (although even that might have been wishful thinking and it was probably an Alba). It definitely wasn't red though - boring ol' dark grey for me.

[Simon G]

Now you mention it - Alba does sound familiar. It was bright red and the headphones were the crap ones with the orange sponge bits.

[3 Colours Red]

If it was bought at Argos, it most likely would have been an Alba.

[Oldelpaso]

a red Aiwa personal stereo.

If you happen to still have it in working order they go for a pretty penny on ebay.

My embarrassment at my first album - The Twelve Commandments of Dance by the London Boys - has definitely been lessened by seeing Jive Bunny and Black Lace on this thread.

[Jah Womble]

Now you mention it - Alba does sound familiar. It was bright red and the headphones were the crap ones with the orange sponge bits.

Not sure how long ago you’re talking, but pretty much ‘all’ personal-stereo headphones were thus in the early eighties. I don’t recall ‘in-ear’ arriving much before about 1988 or so?

Edit: Scrolled back and can see that you’ve said ‘1991’ - by which time ‘in-ear’ were definitely available.

[Tony C]

‘Sweet Baby James’ bought in 1970. I was thirteen.

By sheer coincidence I bought a pristine copy of the album from my local Oxfam store last week for a fiver. I really enjoyed listening to it again. I have a terrible soft spot for James Taylor.

[3 Colours Red]

Edit: Scrolled back and can see that you’ve said ‘1991’ - by which time ‘in-ear’ were definitely available.

Yep, those hard plastic ones that seemed specifically designed to make your ears hurt within seconds of putting them in... either that or just fall out every time you moved your head a distance greater than one molecule.

Ergonomics? Wassat?

[jwdd27]

[Bored Of Education]

First I was given was Fine Art of Surfacing by the Boomtown Rats, for Christmas '79 or '80, whenever it was released./B]

My dad used to go to Singapore on the oil tankers a lot and, when we got into music, brought back some hooky tapes. He got us “The Fine Art Of Surfacing” for us which we loved and a second tape because we loved ELO which is how we got into UFO which was actually the album he got us.

[Gangster Octopus]

I'd sue...

[Plodder]

I'd been gifted a few Beatles albums by my parents, but the first I bought for myself was the Rats' Fine Art of Surfacing. I also (persuaded by my ma, who I'm pretty sure at this point may not have had my interests at heart in this instance) bought 10CC's greatest hits with that same record voucher.

[Sits]

Unexpected Rats love here. TFTT was the only album of theirs I had, half of my first pair of post-Abba albums along with Parallel Lines.

[Plodder]

TFTT was a pretty decent album. A fair amount of filler, but the good stuff is really good.

Their first three stack up well, but after that, it's Mondo Bongo...

[Bored Of Education]

I like Banana Republic as it goes but never listened to the album

[Nefertiti2]

Astral Weeks

[caja-dglh]

[Fussbudget]

First album-length CD I bought with my own money was this:



First actual album I bought with my own money was either the first Spice Girls album or Music for the Jilted Generation by the Prodigy

[Third rate Leszno]

Piece of Mind by Iron Maiden on cassette, bought in Woolies in Whitehaven.

[Sits]

Fussbudget that’s a fascinating album. So was “new wave” meant in a similar context to “British invasion” in 60s USA etc.?

And impressed that INXS made it.

[Gangster Octopus]

We didn't get a record player until I was fifteen and a half, so I didn't buy any albums or singles until then. I bought two albums straight away; a second hand copy of Meddle by Pink Floyd and, with my Christmas record voucher, In Search Of Space by Hawkwind. There may or may not be an image of the latter...

[Fussbudget]

Fussbudget that’s a fascinating album. So was “new wave” meant in a similar context to “British invasion” in 60s USA etc.?

And impressed that INXS made it.

I hadn't given it a lot of thought but the British branding is a bit weird. New wave in France just means "80s pop bands with synths" but not specifically British and the compilation does include some Australian bands as well as euro cheesecakes like Alphaville and Secret Service. With it coming out in the mid-90s I'm guessing the marketing department saw the chance to jump on the Cool Britannia bandwagon

[Gangster Octopus]

I remember being impressed when I was in Reims in 1977 that they had Iggy singing on telly. I think that it was Lust For Life. The idea that such exotic stuff could appear on mainstream telly really appealed to me.

[Crystal Staples]

Bad by Michael Jackson, on cassette, with a £5 WHSmith voucher and 49p of my pocket money. Still retain a lot of fondness for some of the tracks.

[Fussbudget]

I remember being impressed when I was in Reims in 1977 that they had Iggy singing on telly. I think that it was Lust For Life. The idea that such exotic stuff could appear on mainstream telly really appealed to me.

Old Iggy is even a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres these days (like a French OBE but for artists and musicians, and with no weird monarchic or colonial baggage.) Here he is being given his medal by a government dweeb: