This is it. This is where it all began. The first album I ever purchased, and yes, I’m totally ashamed to admit it.
Back in the late 80s and early 90s, starts from Neighbours were everywhere. You couldn’t put on one of the four TV channels we had at the time without seeing something about Kylie, Jason, and the rest of the crew. Pete Waterman decided to stick a couple of them in the recording studio, and stick their signature cheap-arse drum machines behind them. And bloody hell, they were popular, and a 9-year-old me actually quite liked them. “Too Many Broken Hearts” was a particular favourite,for reasons I still don’tunderstand.
While this isn’t strictly he first album I owned, it was the first one to be purchased with my own money. The year is 1991. The local pub (which is now a block of flats) hosted an “It’s a Knockout” style fun day on the summer bank holiday – it had a patch of land behind the back of it that was used. Don’t quite know why, as from memory is always seemed to be a few inches deep with broken glass and remnants of old cars, etc. On this particular day there was a record stall. Just someone randomly placed outside with a box of vinyl. I’ve mentioned many times during these about my lack of pocket money as a kid, but I had enough scraped together to pick up a couple of choice records. Obviously, this one, and two singles… “Secret Garden” by T’Pau” and “swing The Mood” by Jive Bunny. I know, I know. Don’t judge me.
I don’t think I had the LP for very long. I had a habit of destroying records that I didn’t like anymore. I gained great pleasure on sticking them onto a 60-watt light bulb and watching them turn to goopy mush. The Jive Bunny single suffered this fate. Amusingly, I must have frizbeed that Jive Bunny single into next door’s garden, as it turned up still in one piece about 10 years later when they cu the hedge down. I think it still played too… well, apart from the bit where I’d melted it.
Anyhoo, back to the album. I did find a copy in a charity shop a couple of years ago, but really, listening to it in 2020 makes you realise just how cheap the production is. I’d had hoped that the years had been good to it, and that not hearing it for at yeast 25 years may have brought back some rose-tinted memories, but no. It wasn’t good then, and it’s not good now. You can see why PWL were called “The Hit Factory”, because they churned these out by the dozen. So, this one isn’t great, and I wouldn’t recommend hunting it down, but to me it’s my first, and if I’m doing these, I might as well include it. If you really are interested, a “deluxe” 2-disc version was released in 2010 that has different remixes on, including instrumental versions. It’s going for obscene money on ebay and amazon, so if I saw it for £0.99 in a charity shop I’d pick it up
Now all of a sudden I have a craving for Darkmilk chocolate…
No track listing for this one either, as I don’t think I could sit through it again.