My first record was Sway by Dean Martin, but I didn't buy it. When I was a small boy I would stay with my grandmother during school holidays, granny had a fish & chip shop, the shop next door was a cafe, very popular with drivers and tradespeople and more than a few business managers. The proprietor was called George, Uncle George to me.
George had a jukebox, when a record was slipping down in the charts, George replaced it with a new release, the old ones were put back in their dust sleeves, passed onto Granny, who gave then to me.
My family wasn't well off enough to afford a record player but I had great pleasure just taking the records out of their dust sleeves and admiring them. Eventually I earned enough, together with saved pocket money, to buy a second hand Dansette single play.
Uncle George must have got wind of my delight, probably through my grandmother. He invited me behind the counter and presented me with a couple of boxes of records. They were a mix of 1930's African/American music, Big Bands and the early fifties Doo-Wap. What a treasure trove.
Those records inspired me to research the era from whence they came, I have since acquired hundreds more, it's probably why I never got hooked on the bands of the 60's even though I was 14 in 1960, a time of great musical upheaval.
George passed away in 1967, my grandmother wrote to tell me, sadly it was too late to attend his funeral. But I still made the journey to pay my respects. My grandmother told me that George had left me something. I was curious, granny took me into the yard at the back of her shop.
Oh George, you beauty. I love, love,love it.
