If you are familiar with The Chemical Brothers track ‘It Began in Afrika’, I am sorry to inform you that my love of music didn’t start in Africa.

It began in Bristol.

Hometown and birthplace to some amazing musical talents such as Massive Attack, Roni Size, Tricky, Stanton Warriors, Smith n Mighty, Portishead, Kosheen, Way Out West & The Allergies. Plus many many more.

My early childhood years were spent listening to my mum’s sparse record collection which consisted of Elvis Presley, Boney M, Shirley Bassey and Cliff Richard. Plus her Chinese music, this was not by choice.

I was in love with The Beatles from around the age of 11 and ‘Strawberry Fields’ was the first vinyl I ever bought. I once loved The Beatles so much that I knew all the words to their most famous songs. One Christmas back in the 80s my best friend and I thought it would be a good idea to raid her parents drinks cabinet and we got drunk on sherry and advocaat and proceeded to sing along to Beatles songs non stop for 2 hours. When her parents came home they found us in a drunken mess and hoarse from singing. We got told off and dragged to Christmas Mass where we giggled the whole way through and then each lost our voices for a few days. Thank you John, Paul, Ringo & George – that was fun!

The first tune and band to have a really big impact on me is Fleetwood Mac. I was obsessed with ‘The Chain’ because the BBC used it as the theme song when they had the licensing rights for Formula One Racing. Their Rumours album will always be my favourite of all time and that will never change. I finally got to see them at Wembley a couple of years ago. I was in tears as I was singing (happy ones) because I have loved them for so long and it was a bucket list wish finally ticked off.

Growing up I was obsessed with music shows like Top of the Pops, The Tube, Yo! MTV Raps, DEF II and Dance Energy and watched them religiously. I remember seeing Doug E Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew performing ‘The Show’ on Top of the Pops when I was 12 and that kick started my love affair for Hip Hop and it was the first Hip Hop vinyl I ever purchased. I also managed to snag the first few compilations of UK Electro albums and would listen to them all the time. At school there weren’t many kids who liked Hip Hop so when we did meet someone who did, we would become instant friends and talk about music non stop. There is a school photo one of my teachers took of our year and my friend and I were stood with our arms folded pretending to be Kool Moe Dee.

I have some fun Hip Hop memories from the late 80s. Being a teenager and meeting some of my fave rappers as they were early in their careers was incredible, they were only a few years older than us. Everything was so exciting and cool. One of my friends and I bunked off school one afternoon to go to a record signing to see Digital Underground before their show in the evening. Having a chance to hang out with them and chat about Hip Hop and go to their show was amazing. I also met KRS One when BDP played at the Bierkeller in Bristol which was a venue that could fit 300 people, he was super chilled and hung out with the crowd to chat to people, I was properly geeking out!

After a lot of begging, I finally got a little boombox when I was 13 for my birthday and a couple of years later I bought my own record player. These two items were my most prized possessions along with my Nike Waffle Diablos. I thought I was a DON!

Back in the late 80s in Bristol we had a pirate radio station called For the People, FTP for short. I came across it by accident and got a very faint and fuzzy reception which I discovered if I attached a metal coat hanger to my boombox and put it on top of the wardrobe I could get a better reception. They played such amazing music and I fell in love with not just Hip Hop, but also reggae, soul, jungle, funk and R&B. Some of my favourite tunes thanks to FTP are Surface ‘Happy’, Angela Winbush ‘Angel’ and Stephanie Mills ‘Never Knew Love Like This Before’ (I cried when they played it on POSE. Candy didn’t deserve to go out like that!).

As a 14 / 15 year old having access to all these music genres blew my mind. I was lost in a world of amazing music and couldn’t get enough, I would spend all my spare money on records and tapes. I also became an acid house fan in the late 80s, and would go to Blues parties and reggae sound clashes with my friends. The early 90s was the birth of jungle, going to raves, R&B and Hip Hop club nights. Early 2000s were filled with funky house or trance nights every weekend which soon spilled into garage, techno, breaks, breakcore & gabba. Plus going to a bunch of gigs. My friends and I packed in a lot!

Fifteen years old acid house fan. How many smiley faces can you spot?

My blog is going to be a recollection of my musical tastes and memories over nearly four decades. I hope I can do it justice and you enjoy the musical ride!