Listography...5 First Albums

Kate's theme for Listography this week is the First Five Albums you ever owned. In our household we were inundated with Top of the Pops albums.  Cheesy cover versions of popular songs, sung by some unknown randoms with some page 3-esque bird on the front, was my introduction to vinyl.  I don't know at what age I realised there was more to music than my dad's embarrassing LP collection!

Having two big sisters I eventually had my aural journey started listening to Pink Floyd, Yes, Led Zeppelin,  and Bowie.  By the '80's Japan and the Human League became by favourites by proxy, but I still didn't own any albums of my own.  By the age of 12ish I started to make my own foray into musical choices and racking my brains, I think these are some of my earliest musical possessions.

1: My very first album that I owned was not awfully cool, but it was much loved.  My Tommy Steele Family Album was made of awesome and with hits such as Flash Bang Wallop, it was a sing along sensation for my uncool pre-teen self.  It was bought from Woolies along with a quarter of Pick 'n' Mix.

2: This was followed in about 1979 by "The Grease Monkeys sing the songs from Grease"...not even the John and Liv version from the film, but a shocking cover version that cost a fraction of the price of the OST.  The Top of the Pops upbringing clearly raised its ugly head as I spent my saved up pocket money on this monstrosity.  Needless to say, I can not find any evidence of this LP on the internet.  Clearly I was the only person to have ever bought this hideous travesty.  So I've used a picture of the original...the album I should have got in the first place. 

3: I got cooler shortly after this.  The Best of Blondie was my first dabble into the punkish stage that I was to adopt in my teens.  I loved Atomic.  I still went for a "best of" rather than a proper LP but I was learning!

4: Finally I found my musical niche when I fell in love with Bauhaus in 1981.  I was massively in love with Pete Murphy and their obscure, macabre lyrics spoke to the emerging darkness in my psyche.  They were the first band I ever saw too...amazing!

5: Bowie's Ziggy Stardust was another purchase that cemented my path towards black lipstick, nail varnish and eyeliner.  I loved the Bowie albums and would sing along with my next door neighbour Julie in her bedroom, whilst jotting down the lyrics in our rough books.  We thought we were pretty cool!

Listography...5 Favourite Films

Fresh off the back of the BAFTAs and of course Kate's 15 minutes of fame on Irish TV (get her...she'll be way too famous to talk to the likes of us soon!! hehe) our Listography challenge for this week is five favourite films.  This is such a tricky one!!  When I start thinking of movies I love, I'm reminded of other favourites until I have a list a mile long covering every genre and mood known to celluloid!  So I've reined in my prolific film loving tendencies and whittled it down to this:

Se7en I love Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman.  I love the dark, atmospheric cinematography and the gritty storyline.  I love evil Kevin Spacey and his crazy killing spree.  Sadly I hate Gwyneth Paltrow, but because she ends up with her decapitated head in a box, her appearance in this film does not ruin it for me!

I saw Grease at the cinema and the projector broke, leaving a theatre full of pre-pubescent cinema goers sobbing into our popcorn because we'd been queueing around the block just to get in to see it.  It became the first film of my youth where I could recite every line.  We used to re-enact it line by line on the 2 mile walk back from school.  We knew every appearance of the geek Eugene and every dance move.  However, as a big Boomtown Rats fan, I cheered when Bob Geldof's Don't Like Mondays knocked Summer Nights off of the number one spot in the charts and he ripped up a pic of John and Liv on Top of the Pops.  Proper anarchy!!

I adore Disney films and I could easily list them all as favourites but I have a huge soft spot for Beauty and the Beast.  The brunette bookish Belle proves that you don't have to be a vacuous princess to land your man, and her dismissal of the popular hunk Gaston in favour of the hirsute beast shows real girl power!  The songs are fab and I love the kiss at the end. X

No list would be complete without Nightmare on Elm Street.  The whole franchise just lends itself perfectly to feeding my fears!  I can't sleep with my wardrobe doors open or with my feet poking out from under the duvet....lest the nightmare monster comes a calling!!  As everyone knows my baby son is named after Freddy Krueger, such is my love of this movie.  I saw it at the cinema as a teenager and we sat screaming and squirming in our seats as the knifed gloved slashed and sliced at his snoozing victims.  Proper iconic horror...brilliant!

Calamity Jane is representative of all the musicals that I love.  My dad was a big Howard Keel fan and we were brought up on the old musicals.  I love the all singing, all dancing extravaganzas.  Calamity Jane has some brilliant songs...Whip, Crack, Away...you've got to love it! The love story of a tom boy cowgirl who falls in love is just charming.  Old school romance, Doris Day and a cracking lot of songs.  Unbeatable!


Apologies to Saw, Dirty Dancing, ET, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Notebook, Toy Story, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Freaks, Fight Club, Terminator, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and Con Air for omitting you.