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The Ten Albums That I Would Save If My House Were On Fire

15.60.75 (The Numbers Band) - Jimmy Bell's Still In Town

8 months ago, I had never heard of this band, but when this album turned up at my local library, I thought it looked interesting. It was recorded in 1975 (I'm a sucker for the early '70s) & it just had that rough hewn & home made look about it. Anyway after playing it several times, I knew that this was one of the truly great American albums of the last 40 years. The horns are massive, with the rhythm section laying down an impossible foundation, over which Robert Kidneys guitar & vocals career wildly. 6 months later, that same CD was on the shelf for sale for just £2. Since myself, no-one else had even bothered to chance a few pence to find out what they sound like! Maybe they need to get a song featured on a T.V advert.

Tim Buckley - Lorca

I only recently discovered the great man's work - through his son Jeff's masterpiece - "Grace". There being so little available by Jeff, curiosity led me to his dad. I knew from the start that the one I really wanted was "StarSailor". Unfortunately, there is absolutely no way that you can buy this album today. Every listing that I have tried fails to even acknowledge that it exists. Ho hum; in the mean time I will have to make do with "Lorca", a very fine album in it's own right - the closest I will get to "Starsailor" in the foreseeable future.

Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica

If my house was burning down, and I could save just one album, it would probably be this one. Not because I particularly like it - I don't - I don't even begin to understand it. But, in my no doubt heightened state of grief & mad crazy anguish, I might come to appreciate this lunatic noise that has so intrigued & captivated me for about 5 years now. Don't get me wrong. I love playing this CD. I find it immensely challenging & exciting…it's just - what the hell was he doing?

Dream Syndicate - Medicine Show

This album WAS almost lost to fire. Well sort of. I left it too close to an electric light & it got a bit pretzelled. Every cloud has a silver lining etc & it was recoverable. I have since put it onto CDR. I had barely listened to this gem for 15 years (since my first CD player),and Rock & Roll just doesn't get much better than this. A&M refuse to release this gem on CD. Why??? Anyone lucky enough to see to have seen them live in their heyday with the incendiary Karl Precoda on lead guitar…

Gentle Giant - Out Of The Fire

In 1978, there wasn't much "adult" music available on the radio or T.V, so the chance to see a band like "Gentle Giant" who I had only read about, on Radio 1/BBC2's "Sight & Sound In Concert", was too good to be true. Sure enough, at 6.30 on the Saturday evening, I hit the record button on my old '70s style music centre, sat back & "enjoyed" an hour of music that went totally over my head. One Track - "On Reflection" stood out. On playing back the tape - disaster - it chewed up - never to be played again. I didn't even know what that track was called. 20 years later, I dreamed of that long forgotten tape (sad git!) A few weeks after that I found a CD in London of the entire concert, including tracks left out by the BBC and another "In Concert" from 1973. Good things come to those who wait (for 20 years)

Octobre - 1972-1989

Like most people in this country, until recently I had never heard of this band. That changed about a year ago, when I found a compilation of Quebec's Octobre in the library, donated by the government of Quebec. Their music fuses west coast '60s psychedelia with '70s British prog rock, a truly delicious concoction. They sing entirely in French, the sleeve notes are French & everything on the web is French. I flunked French at school, so still I know virtually nothing about them. After several phone calls, I eventually tracked down the man in charge of buying & selling at the library and he agreed to sell it to me for £2. I am now the legitimate owner of possibly the only copy in the country of this wonderful obscurity.

The Outlaws - Hurry Sundown

This album, good though it is, probably isn't good enough for this list. However, a very strange thing happened a while back, and I swear it's true. About 10 years ago I cleared out most of my vinyl albums (much to my later regret), and in the rush, I got rid of this one, inadvertently keeping another, much inferior one (name forgotten). After playing the remaining, very disappointing disc, it was filed away & forgotten about until about 3 year ago, when, there on the shelf & in front of me now - "Hurry Sundown". Mind you, if it was lost in a fire, it would probably still find a way back to me!

Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon

Back in 1974, this was one of those albums that everyone with pretensions to being cool had to have a copy of. An essential part of the pose was to carry it around, under the arm around school. Being terminally uncool myself and with only pocket money, this presented quite a problem, until one day that possibly changed my life. One of the schools tough kids, Danny told me that he wanted to sell his copy for 75p. I persuaded him to let me borrow it overnight, so home it came with me. Instant street cred. Problem: Knowing that my parents were somewhat strict about swearing, what could I do about "Don't give me that do goody good bullshit"? A black biro came to the rescue, removing all trace of the offending word on the sleeve. The record itself was scratched beyond recognition, so on returning it the next day a beating was only narrowly avoided by quick thinking, lying & running. Music never sounded the same again.

R.E.M - Reckoning

I first saw REM on The Tube in October 1983. Since then, I have bought every REM album immediately upon release. However, Reckoning has very special memories for me. The following spring, a friend & I drove down to Worthing to see the band. We got there a couple of hours early, so after hanging around outside (not wanting to lose our place at the front), I rushed straight to the loo. Darren - my friend suddenly burst in - "Rob, Peter Buck's out there playing pinball". I wasted minimal time getting out, and there he was - my guitar hero. We chatted for about 20 minutes about the band and music in general. I asked if they could play "Don't go back to Rockville", and he told me that they don't do that one on stage any more. Towards the end of the set, he looked straight at me in the front row & said "This one's for you"…

Satellites - Satellites

This album never actually got released, & much to my shame, I might have had something to do with that. Around 1984, I went with a friend to see Jason & The Scorchers at the Marquee. We got to the club early, and there we were, drinks in hand, centre stage, with not much happening. Over to the left, on the floor, we saw 3 bulging envelopes. After a few seconds, curiosity got the better of us & we checked them out. Inside each there was a tape, photo & biography of the Satellites. Of course, we had no idea who they were, but we pocketed 2 of them anyway, leaving one for the owner. On the long drive home, we were kept awake by a fabulous southern boogie band that came to international acclaim as The Georgia Satellites a couple of years later. PS, they never again sounded as good as they did on that tape.