If I was a teenager growing up today I doubt very much if I would be so obsessed with music. This has nothing to do with the quality of today's music. I'm not yet one of those grumpy old men moaning that today's music is all 'thump, thump, thump' and people shouting. No, my concern is with the lack of places nowadays where I can buy my beloved sounds. It must be hard for today's teenager who's music is neatly stored on their iPods or mobile phones to understand the thrill it once was to enter a local record store and search through racks and racks of records to find the new Jesus and Mary Chain 12" or a second hand copy of a rare Captain Beefheart bootleg. Nowadays the latest R&B track is only a click away on your pc's keyboard. And when you're mobile phone's memory is full it's only another click away from that piece of music being discarded into cyberspace. There was none of that when I was younger. When you got fed up with a record or grew out of a group, they either went to the back of your ever expanding collection or you took them to your local 2nd hand record shop where you would get paid a fraction of what you originally paid for them or more likely you would exchange them for other records. 3 Simple Minds picture discs for Sonic Youth's debut album anyone? I was visiting my home town last week where in days gone past I could easily, and happily spend a full Saturday afternoon going from record shop to record shop, browsing through racks crammed with thousands of pieces of vinyl. Today the only 2 places in town where I could buy music were Asda and Tesco. No Thanks!!! I can remember at least a places in town that at one time or another I have bought music from. From the likes of Our Price right down to the tiny market stalls that sold 2nd hand market stalls I have spent thousands of pounds over the years. At one time even Boots The Chemist and John Menzies were havens for any music lover. One of my favourite stores was Arnotts. For anyone who doesn't remember, Arnott's was a department store that was later taken over by Hourstons. Every Saturday I would walk through the 'Ladies Department', go down the escelators, through the 'Homeware Department' and over to the far right hand corner where the 'Record Department' was situated. I remember going in one Saturday in the early 80's and it was like a treasure island to me. On the long counter there was box upon box crammed full of 7" singles all for 10p each. The store must have decided to get rid of all it's old stock and there it was right in front of me. I only remember a few of the records I bought that day (and also everyday after that I had any money until the sale finished) but I do know that it was the most amount of records I had bought in my life. I do remember buying loads of punk/new wave singles at the time but also loads of stuff that I had never heard or heard of before. Once I had got through all the decent stuff and still having money left it was hit and miss really. I did buy a few Siouxsie And The Banshees singles that day, some of which I still own although I haven't played in years. So that's the reason for today's album. It's funny how when you talk to anyone who has ever been into 'punk' music they will talk about The Clash, the Pistols, The Damned, etc but very rarely does anyone mention the Banshees which is pretty strange considering they were one of the most enduring and succesful bands of that era. So here's the compilation album 'Once Upon A Time / The Singles'.
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01 Hong Kong Garden
02 Mirage
03 The Staircase (Mystery)
04 Playground Twist
05 Love In A Void
06 Happy House
07 Christine
08 Israel
09 Spellbound
10 Arabian Knights
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8 Ball Quick Fire Pool
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