Denise/54/Grimsby
What popular music were you interested in when you were my age?
At parties we mostly listened to Rod Stewart, still the Moody Blues were about, Pink Floyd and some really obscure ones as well, like Tamla Motown. I used to go to folk clubs as well. Dylan and Leonard Cohen, they sang ballad type songs. A mixture of artists and singers, from Diana Ross to David Bowie.
How did you access it?
Well I didn't really listen to music very often, more of a treat. Most of the songs were well known and it would be people telling you about it but mostly I watched Top Of the Pops. Also still going to record shops to listen to songs with head phones and you'd ask if you could play it and we used to buy in my family, we'd take it in turns, 3 people put together, 7 and 6 a single, we'd get a single a week which was quite a lot really. That was my older sister and brother but I got to listen to the as well and I've even still got them they were treasured, you'd even go round to peoples houses and you'd take your record collections because not everybody had them. I listened to music mainly through records and not on the radio, as a family we did not have the radio on. In our house it was either top of the pops or the record player. Listening to older siblings, influenced by their tastes in music and saw many bands in my area because of my sister going. Sometimes I went to see live bands as I did travel to Liverpool to the cavern club to see bands there. Also I went to the Free trade hall in Manchester to see a famous guitarist called.. At parties there were duke boxes so we could choose what songs to play and and I did this at Blue Note which was a hippy 'to be seen' cafe place where I'd meet friends and not go with school friends as they had different tastes. Also read magasines to find out about new artists. We also did music appreciation in our music class at school where someone would bring in some music and say a bit of information about them and that's how I found out about Leonard Cohen.
Looking back now do you think you followed a particular subculture and dressed a certain way in the sense that the choice of music reflected your lifestyle, friends and fashion?
I think it did at the time, although I did go across to a folk club even though I dressed differently I didn't take to certain traditions there and when I went to parties all of the well known bands were played. I wore a lot of hippy style things, beads and glasses which was definitely reflective of the music I listened too. I was inspired by some artists and was able to see them from magasines pictures.
