1. The BeatlesRubber Soul
When I was about 11 I saw A Hard Day’s Night on BBC Two. The Beatles and The Monkees were my way into pop music. My parents were really into classical music, the exception being The Beatles, so amongst all the Mozart, Schubert and Bach, there were Beatles records. They had Rubber Soul> so I used to play that all the time, and the single of ‘Lady Madonna’, and ‘Penny Lane’. It could have been any Beatles record, but I’ve gone for Rubber Soul. It’s a real bubblegum record for me. All those harmonies and the energy on a song like ‘Drive My Car’. It’s such a great record. When they were still The Fab Four – before the darkness set in! I love that era of The Beatles, and earlier too: ‘She Loves You’, I Want To Hold Your Hand… All the super catchy stuff. It’s amazing. I can always come back to their records, apart from maybe Sgt. Pepper’s. I’ve never really found a way into that.Â
