MY FIRST 45 RPM RECORD

WHEN I WAS ABOUT 13 YEARS OLD

When we moved into Princess Terrace in Scarborough (UK) around the mid 1950s after living out in Eastfield, I remember that my brother and I had to sleep in the attic at the very top of the three-story house. In the corner of the attic the past residents had left a huge heap of stuff, including what appeared to be wireless transmitters, gas masks, and all sorts of electrical gear left over from the war, we assumed. (My mind used to boggle at what all this stuff might have been used for.)

Mixed in among this heap of 'rubbish' was a 78 rpm record player and dozens of old 78 rpm records, so my first experience of music (other than the radio) was playing old 78 records on a wind-up record player with big metal needles.

It wasn't until February 1962, that I got a record player for my birthday. It was a turqoise and cream coloured box thing with a handle, that opened up and plugged into the mains, but it didn't play 78s. It was designed to play 45s and LP records. I was really chuffed because many of my friends already had record players, and I seemed to be one of the last to get one.

I remember going with a school friend called kevin Trotter to buy my first record from Deans Music Shop in St Thomas Street, and it was "Return To Sender" by Elvis Presley. I took it home and played it non-stop for hours on end. From that point on during 1962, I bought quite a few 45 rpm's and built quite a collection, including records by Adam Faith, Del Shannon, Cliff Richards and the Shadows, Duanne Eddy, and many more.

During the Summer of 1962, I would often put records on in my bedroom, turn up the volume to full blast and open the windows. Why? Because there were always the possibility of girls staying in the Bed and Breakfast houses opposite, and my music would show them how cool I was. (That's what you do when you're 13, and why I understand totally why teenagers in cars nowadays turn up their CD music and wind down their car windows - it's the 'hey look at me!' syndrome - it just surprises me that they are still doing it at 18 years of age.)

It was about a year before I got my first LP - "Please Please Me" by the Beatles which came out in March 1963, and is still today one of the best records the Beatles made.