2. Roxy MusicRoxy Music
I bought the album on my 14th birthday. It was the first album I bought, the day after release. Went down to the record shop in Blackburn. The fashion shop opposite was called Clobber. We bought our gear there. I bought Roxy Music and it was the first album I’d ever heard that took me to another place. It was the coolest thing. I didn’t think I could be cool because I had curly hair – I looked like a King Charles spaniel. Eno with his boa and making those sounds on his synth; I’d never heard anything like it.
I went down to a club called the Lodestar near me and met kindred spirits. I used to pound the speakers during the Battle of Britain medley [‘The Bob (Medley)’]. If you panned to the left you could hear him speaking. When it came on and you heard that crowd chatter, I was thinking, "I want to be in that". I got shirts and ties and started to wear pleated trousers.
There was a place in Manchester called Pips that had a Roxy room. I had the funniest haircut on my membership card. I’ve still got the original album. It’s in front of me at the moment. The pictures of them are incredible. I traced over the picture of Eno and did a drawing of it. I did drawings of my heroes. Paul Thompson [Roxy Music drummer] had a tiger on his shoulder.
The great thing about it was because my parents were so horrified. My mum particularly thought Ferry was terrifying. He’s the man for me!
