( On being a rock fan in the late 70’s /early ’80s)

I wrote last year of the ‘tribal’ nature of rock music culture when I was a lad back in 1980 as some of you will recall.

Being a teenage rock fan in those simpler times was a very different beast to what it is now.

There was no Internet, no downloads, no Spotify playlists, no I-Phones , Smartphones, or any sort of mobile phones, basically no digital technology for that matter, what we had were cassette tapes and vinyl, that was the choice, take it or leave it , as us kids of the time were frequently told.

We had a much simpler life, with less choice, but then every generation can probably say that about the one they came after.

There were only 3 channels on TV, and and only the more modern coloured TV sets had remote controls.

The radio was good , but only on certain channels, and there weren’t many of them, nothing like the choice we have now!

We got our music from the radio, Radio 1 was good for that in those days , with ‘The Friday Rock Show’ catering for us rock fans , and John Peel’s late night show for the punk fans, there was also the Top 40 chart rundown, which was more or less what was featured on BBC’s ‘Top of the Pops’ on Thursday nights.

We read the music weeklies, ‘Sounds’ and ‘NME’ (New Musical Express) being the major ones of the day, where we got our information about music in the pre-Internet days. Less regularly issued magazines like ‘Zigzag’ and ‘Kerrang’ , were also great, and paved the way for the later publications like ‘Mojo’ , ‘Uncut’ , ‘Classic Rock’ and ‘Planet Rock’.

I had vinyl albums, mostly black vinyl, with the odd coloured vinyl collectors pieces in the mix, two prized possessions of the time were for me Canadian rock band Triumph’s ‘Rock ‘n’Roll Machine’ on silver vinyl, and Motorhead’s ‘Bomber ‘ on blue vinyl both of which I reckon would probably go for a fortune on any given internet site these days.

A school pal of mine said that if you were a ‘real collector’ , you would buy the picture disc version of an album, as well as the ‘normal’ black vinyl one, but that was never my thing, one to collect, one to play. I liked to actually listen to the music I was buying, not look at it, nor mount it on the wall like a celebrated work of art. Then again, money was a factor in these things in those more austere times, you had to live within your means , debt was not an option , or not one I was aware of.

Anyway , as I have said before , music was somewhat ‘tribal’ , in those days, if you liked a certain type of music , there was a style, a uniform, an image which accompanied it, and it was an unspoken thing that you adhered to your chosen genre, and never deviated from that path. You could be a mod, or a rocker, a punk, a heavy metaller, goth, whatever, you name it , it was there and had its place in the scheme of things.

I was a heavy metal fan, and went with the image as far as my folks would allow, my hair was never shoulder length or anything like that , and I wore denim, faded and patched , of course, and the obligatory leather jacket bought from Burtons, (not the biker jacket I would’ve liked) .Sometimes I wore the denim jacket , and waistcoat, which was decorated with patches indicating my allegiance to the multitude of bands in my growing album collection: Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Rush, Motorhead, Hawkwind, Judas Priest and so on. The fashion faux pas now known as ‘double denim’ was not yet seen as a bad thing, so we were ok with that. That’s how we rolled back then, as the well worn cliche goes!

Anyway, I listened to other music than heavy metal, I borrowed albums from the local record library, and was interested in rock music as a whole, not just specific genres. Psychedelia or ‘hippy music’ as we called it appealed a bit, and old rock stuff from the ’60s and early ’70s was okay too. Some punk rock had its merits, and was it really so different from metal, less guitar solos, shorter hair, similar dynamics and aggression?.

I remember one day coming in late to school in 1980, having nipped down to the local library on my lunch break, I had chosen ‘ Blues For Elvis’ by Albert King, which was basically Elvis songs done in a smooth blues style, (brass sections, slick guitar lines, not loudly amplified! ) , once I played it I found that it was ok, maybe something I would like by the time I was 50 or so! (My younger self was right about that, if truth be told!) The other choice was ‘The Jimi Hendrix Experience’, which was ‘mental’ in the parlance of those days , this guy’s playing was seriously good , he was definitely the godfather of heavy metal / hard rock music, or close to it , an absolute genius of the guitar -this was powerful stuff!

So those were my library choices, not really deviating all that much from the chosen path, I would say. I also nipped into the Other Record Shop on Union Street, and purchased Van Halen’s debut album with the stunning guitar solo of ‘Eruption’ , which really showcased the influential gamechanging guitar style of Eddie Van Halen, I had missed out on Van Halen live in the Capitol Theatre, when they had supported Black Sabbath, in 1978, so I was playing catch up; my other purchase was ‘It’s Alive’ by The Ramones, the US punk band, I liked the Ramones, their music was loud and fast, like rock music was supposed to be. They were basically a guitar solo away from being the US equivalent to Motorhead, I thought this at the time, and was over the moon later in the 1990s’ when Lemmy Kilmister penned a tribute to the ‘brothers’ Ramone. They were , in the words of another school pal, ‘a good thrash’ , they were a life affirming racket , sort of like Status Quo, with football terrace chants , and simple catchy lyrics played at 45rpm, rock ‘n’roll, with a bit of surf music mixed in . Its great to hear them now, all these years later, now that they have become part of the pop cultural landscape, their songs being used in TV commercials, referenced in ‘Family Guy’ and in the books and films of Stephen King, their song ‘Pet Sematary’ being scored for the film of the same name.

Anyway, I returned to school with my Aberdeen City Libraries record folder , popped in to the Sixth Year Common room for a coffee and a rowie before the afternoon’s school. The radio was on , and Motorhead and Girlschool’s hit record ‘Please Don’t Touch ‘ blared out into the room. Barely noticing some of my school colleagues, I mused over which guitarist played which solo , as was my custom. I was (and am) obsessive about details of who played on what and who the songs were written by , this was important to me, as to others of my generation. My reverie was interrupted when Alan , a pal from one of my classes asked me what my records were. I told him, and this answer was met with some derision, ‘How can you like the Ramones, and Van Halen?’ , he said, ‘You’re a metaller’, I laughed at that, maybe I was ahead of my time, liking different genres of music. ‘ No mate, I’m a rock fan’, I replied smugly .In a few years , once I had left the peer pressure of the playground behind, I soon learned that it was possible to appreciate several genres of music in the same music collection, regardless, and my music listening choices would hop from genre to genre, always returning to the music which started me on the music listening journey.