UKC

Quite simple really. What was the first ever Album that you actually bought. Not given to you as a present when you were one year old, but importantly your own choice.

My first was this classic album from 1966...

"John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton"

I think it was What We Did On Our Holidays by Fairport Convention, in 1969 when I was 14, having heard Meet On The Ledge played by John Peel on his late night show on Radio 1. Discovered so much superb music thanks to that man.

The Peddlers, "Three in a Cell"

My first ever album was "Better be Sane" by Richard Plant. Good reviews, but few sales. I never made another, sadly.

The first album I bought would have been John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme"

'Crime of the Century' by Supertramp when I was about 14?  Soon after them I had to decide between punk and hard rock.

I think it was Made in Japan, the Deep Purple double live album.  Still some of the best live guitar I've ever heard.

Lazy is particularly fine after the experimental Moog noodlings:

youtube.com/watch?v=psFdqiPfhmg&

Soon afterwards I bought Focus 3 (which turned out to be a bit jazz rock for me at the time) and Hawkwind's live album Space Ritual (which has a unspeakable things being done to a sax, I think, but definitely isn't jazz).  I still play Down Through the Night occasionally, especially when driving in the dark...

youtube.com/watch?v=uoA8zu1ZTSI&  - there's about a minute of intro before Lemmy really gets going. 

Sandinista by the Clash and All Mod Cons by the Jam - I bought them together in 1978 (I think)

Edit: I still have All Mod Cons and listen to it now and again. It has stood the test of time.

I'd like it to have been No More Heroes, which my second, either that or Led Zeppelin (I), I can't remember which came first, but my real first was a double album by The Beatles of all their hits I bought much earlier in Paris when I was about twelve. I really liked it, even after I discovered at a later date that it was recorded by a cover band called The Silver Beatles or something.

My first real album was the Manic Street Preachers' The Holy Bible. I must have bought it a couple of years after it came out because I would have been too young to listen to it on its release in 1994.

Quote from Wikipedia: The album's lyrics deal with subjects including child prostitution, American consumerism, British imperialism, freedom of speech, the Holocaust, self-starvation, serial killers, the death penalty, political revolution, childhood, fascism and suicide.

Mine was the Marshall Mathers LP, at aged 10. Bought it after hearing the song 'Kim' (listen to it if you're looking for something to never show to a 10 year old!)

'Songs of Love and Hate', by Leonard Cohen. My sister and I bought it between us. I note that it came out in 1971; somehow I thought we bought it earlier. Fickle memory!  Anyway, after that, we got 'Songs of Leonard Cohen' and 'Songs from a Room'. We didn't have much in common but we both loved Leonard Cohen's work. I still do. Just playing 'Famous Blue Raincoat' in my mind moves me to tears. Listening to Damien Rice and the Webb Sisters singing it is, well, for me... something else. Lyrics which, across half a century, remain tantalisingly mysterious.

'If you ever come by here, for Jane or for me
Your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free.

Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried...'

Mick

Argus, Wishbone Ash, Second was Rory Gallagher, Live in Europe

Either Motorhead No Sleep Til Hammersmith or AC-DC For Those about to Rock, can't remember which.  Haven't listened to either for a long time now, nothing to play them on anymore!

On tape - Michael Jackson, Thriller 

On CD - Prodigy, Music for the Jilted Generation 

On iTunes - Pearl Jam, 10

Just looked on iTunes...it's been over 2yrs since I bought anything new...must do something about that!!!

Inflammable Material by Stiff Little Fingers - still an excellent album

You've really got me (see what I did there....) racking my brains on this one Sean. I think it may have been Cry of Love by Hendrix. It may also have been Who's Next. Both of which have definitely stood the test of time.

Paul 

I played the first track on Live in Europe  so much that my then climbing partner went on to name a Lundy first ascent after it.

Soundtrack to the film "Electric Dreams" which was ever so slightly premium-priced even in 1988 when it was four years old already. I paid £7.99 for it, when the going rate for a brand new LP was £5.99 and £2 was a lot of money to a 13-year-old Blue Straggler, but it was worth it for the two Giorgio Moroder instrumentals and of course the Moroder/Oakey hit single. 
I believe I bought it in a WH Smith in Oxford during a family stay with family friends in Woodcote. 

,

’Nice Enough to Eat’ Island Sampler.

At 14s and 6pence, it was half the price of regular LPs, and was all I could afford, 2 weeks paper round money!

Introduced me to the world outside the top 10, every artist on it I still listen to.

I had this as well but not as my first. The Rock Machine Turns you on was a sampler and I went on to buy 6 more albums by artists on there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rock_Machine_Turns_You_On

Samplers worked!

*pedant alert*

sandinista wasnt released until 1980......

*end pedant alert*

Abbey Road, The Beatles.

The Ramones: Rocket to Russia... drove my folks up the wall for weeks...

With the Beatles

Soooo long ago!

My first album purchase was this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkees_Greatest_Hits

Seriously uncool, especially since it would have been 1983 when I bought it, in my defence, I was 8.

The TV show was still being repeated regularly back then.

Big Ones by Aerosmith. Still enjoy the songs on it, and was pleased to see them play at Download Festival a few years ago.  

That's a coincidence, my first was the first Monkees LP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkees_(album). And I watched their TV programme every week.

My second was Are You Experienced? My mum disliked the title until I told her the group's name.

First album with money cadged off my parents was Hunky Dory by Bowie, still getting played regularly in our house. However the first proper purchase with my first wages from my Saturday Job was The Rainbow album On Stage, ritchie’s first live album after leaving Deep Purple, tremendous!

I think mine was AC/DC's live out outing If You Want Blood, You've Got It, probably off the back of their Rock Goes to College performance. Or, it may have been the Vibrators' Pure Mania.

Or, having gone with my brother to see The Who, AC/DC and The Stranglers at Wembley in 1979, it might have been Who's Next, but it was most likely some cacky Top of The Pops compilation type thing in the mid 70s with people miming to glam rock bands.

Nirvana - Incesticide 

Probably 1993, so I was 13 or 14. 

With you all the way Mick, I started with Songs of Leonard Cohen in 1968 as my first album. Got the book of music, was able to play a handful of them but was dissuaded from singing along - apparently I could not match his voice... 

Famous Blue Raincoat is still a favourite, was running around my head over the weekend for some reason.

I liked samplers. My best was "Bombers" (Polydor) which had two brilliant Taste tracks on it and a lot of other weird stuff.

Actually, that's a very good point (I checked, and you're quite correct, December '80) and not in the least bit pedantic, more factual.

If not Sandinista, then what album? I know I bought two together, and I know AMCs was one of them, but I always thought it was bought with Sandinista.

Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs. I need to have a real good think about this.

Edit: I think it might have been Jazz by Queen.

Script for a Jester's Tear - Marillion

Bought on the day it was released and still regularly listened to.

Me too!

Classic, classic albums!!

I don't think so. I still play them from time to time.

How can I compete with that?

When I was 10 years old I used a sizeable wedge of my pocket money to buy The Boomtown Rats Fine Art of Surfacing.

The girls in my school were heavily into the Bay City Rollers and I don't think I met a single person who was interested in those rats.

Wonder what happened to the lead singer?

I heard he swore a lot.

Turning Point The only track I remember was Mayall's classic harmonica solo 'Room to Move', which I've just had to download, since I gave away all my vinyl a couple of years ago. Mistake.

Queen Jazz, Clash Sandinista.......easy to confuse them.....but as jazz was released within a few weeks of all mod cons....

Anyway, the first album i bought was Made in Japan, but i already had a few given as pressies; Lindisfarne - nicely out of tune, The Who live at leeds, slade - slayed, to name 3 I remember (the joys of a cousing 2 years older into rock music).

Its gone expensively downhill since then and i've got approx 1,600 albums......

It is astonishing just how many peoples’ first albums happened to be bona fide classics by credible (and MOSTLY white male guitar) artists!

'Messin' with the Kid' - classic.

First album for me was Bowie, Ziggy Stardust.

Blondie - Parallel Lines (on cassette).

Followed (as soon as I'd saved up my paper-round money) by Dire Straits - Communique (cassette again!)

There is nothing uncool about the Monkees. Get away from the bubblegum TV nonesense and they were a great band. Even had Jimi Hendrix opening for them for a while. Their TV shows are on dvd if you're looking.  

My first album was T.Rex Electric Warrior. second was made in Japan. 

It'd be interesting to know how many of us oldies still prefer playing LPs to digital.  I prefer vinyl for older rock stuff, jazz and pop but I'll put on a CD for Classical as the odd smudge on an LP detracts from the classical experience somewhat - doesn't seem to matter on anything else. 

I think it may have been Judas Priest's British Steel or it could have been Tubular Bells. It was Christmas 1980 and I had just got a proper Bush record player from my mum and dad. My previous player only played singles so they bought me a nice deck and a couple of albums (1812 Overture and a Deep Purple best of) but my granny card money went to some seriously classic prog and metal.

I was given copies of Kylie Minogue's I Should be so Lucky and Pet Shop Boys' Introspection. Can't remember which was first, but I liked some of the tunes to be fair.

Then a friend at school let me listen to Queen on his Walkman...blown away and so rock was my first love.

The first album I bought myself was Def Leppard's Hysteria. Wore out the tape.

Used to listen to Tommy Vance (Friday night) and Alan Freeman (Saturday) every week!

Guilty. ZZ Top, Eliminator

Ah yes, 'TV on the radio' - those were the days. Still have the yearly top 10 on tape somewhere - Grendel, Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, 2112, and all the other usual suspects.

Genesis Nursery Cryme.

A bit later things like Supertramp Crime of the Century, ELP Pictures at an Exhibition, Roxy Music For your Pleasure, but I'm not sure what I got in 1972.

Adam and the Ants - Kings of the Wild Frontier.

Well, I was only 9.

(First single was Another Brick in the Wall.) 

not sure but think it was Nicely out of tune by Lindisfarne, no longer have the LP but still play many of the tracks

Ok, so I trawled through my albums last night and I think I have got it wrong again.

I knew All Mod Cons was there, the 'forgotten' album was The Amazing Darts.

As soon as I saw the cover I knew. I was with my Mam and she paid for them both with my paper-boy savings. I bought them in a shop called Gough and Davy in Grimsby, now a Greggs shop.

Thanks, Sean, for the enforced trip down memory lane.

The score to Fistfull of Dollars, Ennio Morricone, is the first one a bought with my own money.

However, I do remember a Trumpton album lurking in the collection that my mum will have bought me in 1970-ish

Yes, Tommy Vance was probably (alongside Old Grey Whistle Test) the greatest single influence on my musical 'development'. His show was compulsory listening when I was a student and led to the purchase of many hard rock albums and concert visits to see the bands. The ability to watch world-class acts at bargain basement prices back in the late 70s really makes me feel sad for the kids today. The excitement of being deafened for days by the likes of Iron Maiden, Rush, Van Halen, Blue Oyster Cult etc etc! I fist saw Iron Maiden when they played a tiny room at UMIST student union and Def Leppard at Belle Vue in Manchester before they became 'Americanised' and huge.

I think I win for the most embarrassing title. A little gem containing this classic German comedy hit:  youtube.com/watch?v=8JXmzPr6bkA&

I was very young and silly.

Yes: Close to the Edge

With punk at its height and heavy rock/metal the other favourite of music fans at school, I popped into WHSmiths and bought Voulez Vous by ABBA for the princely sum of £5.29 (what's that in today's money?). It was not something I shouted about to anyone at the time (no one else I knew was into them) and I later moved on from them (or so I thought) until deciding I was actually right all along. They were great and it is one of their best albums.

The memory lane thing is great, combined with working from home, which means i'm now listening to some very old and dodgy stuff......and have Sandinista firmly in tomorrow mornings plans......

Most of my early music was given to me on tapes, early Hip Hop (Afrika Bambaataa and some New York radio station recordings, wish I still had them) alongside  "Punk" (Dead Kennedys', Xmal Deutschland, New Model Army etc) so I was a late starter on vinyl. 

The earliest vinyl album I remember buying was The Day The Country Died By The Subhumans!!

Possibly for another thread, but my first CD was Infected by The The (still one of my favourites)

A bit left field, but it was Time and Tide - Greenslade

No disgrace in that ......

Can’t for the life in me remember, but it definitely was 2nd hand bought from Burnley record exchange, 

Are Friends Electric by Tubeway Army, probably in 1978

Still active by the looks of it:
https://tinyurl.com/y62k7qz9

First single was Here We Go With Leeds United in 1972. That didn't stand the test of time funnily enough.

The eponymous first album by 10cc

It's brilliant. I still periodically play it today, although not that copy, I think it's probably polished smooth by now

If the BBC would release the shows for download I would happily pay for them. Unfortunately my extensive home recordings from the mid 80s were destroyed by an ex girlfriend who needed blank tapes for an art project. 

I liked a nice simple tune!

AC/DC back in black.  Closely followed by Madness Absolutely.  I was clearly conflicted.  

I dare say they either weren’t taped at all (if they went out live) or the tapes have been taped over

Sadly true, but I know that some still exist.

It was long time ago but I think it was Rush - "A farewell to kings" but it might have been The Beatles compilation "Love Songs". I can still pretty much sing along to that Beatles album even if I haven't heard the songs for years and years...I was playing In My Life his week and could still participate tunelessly decades on

That's a truly magnificent way to start.

I hear you... but perhaps part of this is not selective memory but the considerable influence of the older brother sister trailblazing a path into cooler music than we deserved...I suspect my first single may have been Little Jimmy Osmond (gift-but not unwelcome Xmas 1972) .

I am still amazed at the silence of those for whom it was a Now compilation or T’Pau or Belinda Carlisle or The Scorpions or Carry on Up the Charts by The Beautiful South or Madonna’s Immaculate Collection or - shudder! - U2’s The Joshua Tree 😃

I remember one day in the late 70s asking my brother to buy me Joan Armatrading's "Walk Under Ladders" but he wasn't able to...this has always seemed to be one of those "roads less travelled by" moments and I sometimes wonder how my life might have gone differently  if I'd actually got that album?

We posted at the same time! Thanks for acknowledging my earlier comment 😃. The older sibling effect cuts both ways of course....if the older sibling has all the good stuff and you have access to it the. what might happen is that you make an ill-advised attempt to blaze a different trail, and you end up with Voice of the Beehive and All About Eve because you’ve been beaten to it with REM, New Order, Violent Femmes, INXS, The The and The Cure

Ditto. The albums, not the date. Got my pair around 1980. The rest of my collection came from the local library, pirated onto C-90s.

Weird... Every time I press the green thumbs up, the total count goes down one... There are more posts I'd like to like, but shan't if it reduces the total count.

A good weekend to all.

Jethro Tull - A

CB

Queen - The Works.

Andy F

LP was possibly the soundtrack to 'War of The Worlds'. As for bands, Talking Heads, '77'.

Cassette album was Beachboys, '20 Golden Greats'.

"Replicas" by Tubeway Army. I still play it.

Reading your post Mick brings to mind my first encounter with Leonard Cohen, late 60's I imagine, and someone played 'The Rock Machine Turns you on' and there was Cohen and 'Sisters of Mercy'. Immediately went out and bought his LP, Songs of L C. Now I really like his later stuff. Lots of him on Utube to follow. I also seem to remember it was at this party that I first encountered 'weed' but didn't  indulge myself. Great days though!

"Gutbucket" in 1967 to play on my Dansette Conquest player.

It was a "sampler" as they were called, of American rock/blues bands and singers. Taj Mahal, Hapsash and the Magic Coat, Janis Joplin, Alexis Korner.

On second thoughts that wasn't released 'till 1969 so it must have been an early album (Freewheelers) by The Peddlers, British Blues and Jazz Group who had a top 20 singles hit some years later with The Lone Ranger?

I also had The Rock machine Turns you on and at one time most of the John Mayall albums.

I was on stage with Mayall and the band in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1969, but only because all the seats were sold out so they let me on the stage!

Replicas by Tubeway Army in 1978 (or 1979?) Shared the cost with my twin brother. I think he's still got it somewhere.

Davie

In fact I'd tell all good people

The fine art of Surfacing, Boomtown Rats. On cassette.

One of the Street Sounds Electro albums, think it was Electro 7. Would have been 1984 / 85 ish in my breakdancing days

Armed Forces..Elvis Costello...1979.

My first single was Friggin in the Riggin by the Sex Pistols...can remember my Mum screaming in digust.

I got two in one go, on cassette from Woolworths. 
 

The Sunday’s: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic 

The Jesus & Mary Chain: Psychocandy. 
 

Can’t think what age I could have been.... twelve perhaps. 

I saw John Mayall and his Bluesbreakers live at the E-Werk in Erlangen, Bavaria, a few years later, i.e. mid-1740s or so...

Fantastic 3h concert in the courtyard, with BBQ and beer at the back of the crowd!

CB

Hah! That was the first album I borrowed from the local library when they introduced a short-lived record-borrowing service in 1975.

jcm

Blimey after those two, subsequent new record buying in the early 1990s was probably disappointing ! 

Heck, I was just getting started. And the Wedding Present were still to release Seamonsters, so it was all good

led zep iV

I bought Led Zep IV the day it was released from the HMV shop in Birmingham. Shortly afterwards the pub next door (the Tavern in the Town) was bombed by the IRA!

My part-time job after school was mopping floors and shelf stacking in the local Fine Fare. For a short time they sold cheap remaindered albums on a wonky carousel by the checkouts. Hidden amongst the Herb Alpert and Edmundo Ros were my first 33’s:

Blind Faith – Blind Faith

In the Court of the Crimson King – King Crimson

Getting to This – Blodwyn Pig