- Kylie & Jason: Especially for You
- Erasure: Crackers International
- Neneh Cherry: Buffalo Stance
- Mike + The Mechanics: The Living Years
- Fine Young Cannibals: She Drives Me Crazy
- Will to Power: Baby I Love Your Way/Freebird
- Roy Orbison: You Got It
- Inner City: Good Life
- Boy Meets Girl: Waiting for a Star to Fall
- Marc Almond featuring Gene Pitney: Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart
- Roachford: Cuddly Toy
- Kim Wilde: Four Letter Word
- Duran Duran: All She Wants Is
- The Four Tops: Loco in Acapulco
- Angry Anderson: Suddenly
- Freiheit: Keeping the Dream Alive
- Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock: Get on the Dance Floor
- Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine: Rhythm Is Gonna Get You
- Milli Vanilli: Baby Don't Forget My Number
- a-ha: You Are the One [remix]
- Holly Johnson: Love Train
- Robert Howard & Kym Mazell: Wait
- Cookie Crew: Born This Way (Let's Dance)
- Adeva: Respect
- Climie Fisher: Love Like a River
- Status Quo: Burning Bridges (On and Off and On Again)
- The Darling Buds: Hit the Ground
- Mica Paris & Will Downing: Where Is the Love?
- Brother Beyond: Be My Twin
- Natalie Cole: I Live for Your Love
- New Model Army: Stupid Questions
- Phil Collins: Two Hearts
- Ten City: That's the Way Love Is
- Level 42: Tracie
- Royal House: Yeah Baby
- Michael Jackson: Smooth Criminal
- Raze: Break 4 Love
- Bobby Brown: My Prerogative
- Petula Clark: Downtown '88
- Gary Moore: After the War
~~~~~
One of the Christmas presents I neglected to mention a few weeks back was one I never saw. Grandma Ella and Grandpa Bill sent me £100.00 which my dad promptly - and, I must say, wisely - decided to hold on to and allow me to access whenever I so desired. We hadn't arrived back in Laindon before my sister had already squandered spent her own holiday cash on a leather jacket purchased in the imaginatively named town of Street; my gift would be spent in a more piecemeal fashion. Care to guess what the bulk of it would spent on? Having been into music for the past several months, I had some catching up to do.
For Christmas I was given three tapes and during our brief interregnum back in Laindon I asked my mum to pick up a compilation called Hit Mix '88 which I'd just seen advertised on TV. My first purchase proper, however, wouldn't be until we took one of our frequent day trips into London. Back in August or September, I mentioned our first visit to the Tower Records store on Piccadilly Circus and how it was the first record store I enjoyed going into and here I was picking up Pet Shop Boys' Introspective. I was awfully proud of my purchase (My mum less so: "This has only six songs on it," she stated in horror as she examined the the sleeve. I tried protesting that every track was seven or eight minutes long but to no avail: "This has only six songs on it," she repeated to my disinterested dad)
My new acquisition stuffed into my pocket, we headed to Wyndham's Theatre on Charing Cross Road to attend The Secret of Sherlock Holmes. At a time when a young Benedict Cumberbatch was a member of Harrow's Rattigan Society of dramatic arts and not even a glint in Mark Gatiss' eye, we were there to see the only Holmes that ever mattered, Jeremy Brett. Even I kind of knew who he was and I had no interest whatsoever in Edwardian England's favourite coked-up sleuth. My parents and sister were excited and figured we were in for a thrilling, edge-of-seat mystery. A good thing, then, that I wasn't expecting much since I wasn't similarly disappointed. Holmes and Watson (played by Edward Hardwicke, also renowned for for his sidekick turn on the telly) spent much of the show discussing some stuff that must have fascinated some in the audience, just not any of us. I spent the bulk of the performance fidgeting in my seat and occasionally taking a peak at the cassette in my jacket pocket.
Introspective would kick off my obsession with buying cassettes for the remainder of our year - and, for that matter, a lifelong love of consuming tapes and, a few years later, CD's. It would also lead me towards collecting many, many other Pet Shop Boys albums in the years ahead. Introspective in '89 lead to Behaviour in '90 right on up to Super just a few months ago. As for The Secret of Sherlock Holmes, I would go on to watch some of the nineties series and much of the recent Sherlock episodes, though not with any devotion or loyalty - and I still haven't bothered with the novels and short stories. I did, however, take a great deal of pride in making my old friend Stephen jealous for having seen Jeremy Brett on a West End stage - even if I much preferred the Pet Shop Boys in a West End town.
~~~~~
young Paul's favourite: Four Letter Word
older Paul's retro pick: Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart
For Christmas I was given three tapes and during our brief interregnum back in Laindon I asked my mum to pick up a compilation called Hit Mix '88 which I'd just seen advertised on TV. My first purchase proper, however, wouldn't be until we took one of our frequent day trips into London. Back in August or September, I mentioned our first visit to the Tower Records store on Piccadilly Circus and how it was the first record store I enjoyed going into and here I was picking up Pet Shop Boys' Introspective. I was awfully proud of my purchase (My mum less so: "This has only six songs on it," she stated in horror as she examined the the sleeve. I tried protesting that every track was seven or eight minutes long but to no avail: "This has only six songs on it," she repeated to my disinterested dad)
My new acquisition stuffed into my pocket, we headed to Wyndham's Theatre on Charing Cross Road to attend The Secret of Sherlock Holmes. At a time when a young Benedict Cumberbatch was a member of Harrow's Rattigan Society of dramatic arts and not even a glint in Mark Gatiss' eye, we were there to see the only Holmes that ever mattered, Jeremy Brett. Even I kind of knew who he was and I had no interest whatsoever in Edwardian England's favourite coked-up sleuth. My parents and sister were excited and figured we were in for a thrilling, edge-of-seat mystery. A good thing, then, that I wasn't expecting much since I wasn't similarly disappointed. Holmes and Watson (played by Edward Hardwicke, also renowned for for his sidekick turn on the telly) spent much of the show discussing some stuff that must have fascinated some in the audience, just not any of us. I spent the bulk of the performance fidgeting in my seat and occasionally taking a peak at the cassette in my jacket pocket.
Introspective would kick off my obsession with buying cassettes for the remainder of our year - and, for that matter, a lifelong love of consuming tapes and, a few years later, CD's. It would also lead me towards collecting many, many other Pet Shop Boys albums in the years ahead. Introspective in '89 lead to Behaviour in '90 right on up to Super just a few months ago. As for The Secret of Sherlock Holmes, I would go on to watch some of the nineties series and much of the recent Sherlock episodes, though not with any devotion or loyalty - and I still haven't bothered with the novels and short stories. I did, however, take a great deal of pride in making my old friend Stephen jealous for having seen Jeremy Brett on a West End stage - even if I much preferred the Pet Shop Boys in a West End town.
~~~~~
young Paul's favourite: Four Letter Word
older Paul's retro pick: Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart
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