I’m a child of the 60s. There I’ve said it.
When I was little, the music I heard was from the mid-50s to
the new songs of the time. My Godfather owned a record shop and my Dad used to
go into the shop, borrow the new chart records of the time, take them home, record
both sides of those shiny black 45s, and take them back. That was the music I first
heard.
It was this environment into which I was born. My
earliest memories are of watching my Dad’s tape recorder and listening to that
lovely music. Right from the beginning, I wasn’t interested in anything else.
By the age of three, my brother’s and sister’s friends would
test me on music. They could show me the flip side of a record, and I could
tell them what was on the other side. I couldn’t even read at the time! When I was three, I had my own proper record
player and records.
Apparently, by October of 1963, I’d been to a record shop
and asked for my first record. It was The Beatles’ ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’.
I don’t have a memory of any of this, but so many people
have told me stories about me and music when I was so young, that I believe
them.
By the mid-60s, my brother was a Motown and Atlantic
fanatic. He had been building his own collection of what have now become soul
classics, and I can clearly remember hearing records by Mary Wells (You Beat Me
To The Punch), The Capitols (Cool Jerk), King Curtis (Linda) and so many more!
In fact the first record I can remember buying myself, was Eddie Floyd’s ‘Knock
On Wood’ such was the influence of his music
.
I can remember my brother in his mohair suit, practising his
Temptations dance steps in front of a full length mirror in his bedroom. So as
you can see, I've been influenced from the very beginning by great music.
By the time I was 10, I had my own reel to reel tape
recorder and was sat next to the radio, microphone in hand, recording the songs
off the radio. And I so wanted to be the presenter, playing those songs,
chatting to my listeners. I never realised it was going to take another 38
years before I had the opportunity to do that!
So this is my background. This is where my love of music
started. And it’s the direction from which, after doing an oldies radio show
for three years, the ‘Missing In Action’ radio show was born.
The show itself owes it’s life to facebook and a group on
there called ‘Lost Pop Hits (M.I.A.).’ I’d joined it about a year earlier, and
became hooked on hearing all those songs that didn't really get played on mainstream
radio any more. At the time, I was presenting an Oldies show called ‘Random
Records’ which had evolved from my original oldies show ‘Flashback’.
The show came about after I’d gone on-line one night and did
an Internet show where basically I had no playlist and just played whatever I
fancied. It developed from there and grew into an oldies show where I
played a mixture of music, across a lot of genres. There would be regular
oldies that could be heard on other stations, and then there were the ‘lost’
hits, the songs that you don’t hear any more.
As time went on, and as I spent more time listening to the
songs that weren't played any more, I decided this was the way I wanted to
go. And by March of 2014, ‘Missing In Action’ was born.
This blog has taken a while for me to get around to, but
now, after having a facebook group, a new web site, and an 'insider's' newsletter, it’s now time to add
the blog.
So, after a long winded introduction, join me as we look over, and marvel at those songs that have gone ‘Missing In Action,’ as we delve into the musical past from the 50s to the end of the 80s, in what I consider the be the best era of popular music, and re-acquaint ourselves with some old friends and even some strangers that we never even knew! And occasionally, I’ll even take a foray into the 90s!
As for my Dad's old reel to reel tapes? Well, they're my most treasured possessions.
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