“I grew up in this quiet little village called Wall, in Staffordshire about 25 miles north of Birmingham, and I was lucky enough to spend my early years surrounded by country side and a lot of space, so we could all make a lot of noise, which is exactly what me, my brother and two sisters did.”
“The living room was on the corner of the house facing the garden and this was where my parents old record player was, and where I have all my earliest memories of vinyl and building my first little collection of 7-inch singles. I’m pretty sure the first record I bought was “Stand and Deliver” by Adam and the Ants, which is a total classic even now. I just watched the video on YouTube whilst writing this, and the memories of dancing round that room with the record player at full volume came flooding back to me. Funny, because I actually ended up playing with the drummer from the band (Dave Barbarossa) for nearly 2 years – about 16 years later!
I met Dave when I was doing some much needed paid vocal work for some dance act he was drumming for. I was impressed with his playing, and he seemed to be impressed with my cavalier attitude towards the band we were both working for (that wasn’t very good I might add, but they paid well). So, we got on like a house on fire and I enjoyed the stories of his former glory in Adam and The Ants and Bow Wow Wow and of course being mentored by the mighty Malcolm MacLaren. He pretty much came and joined my gang of misfits for a couple of years and we played together for a while, but then the journey got a little heavy for everyone after however many months of working and playing for no money and we very sadly parted ways.
But back to the records and the living room in that house I grew up in – yeah, it was Adam and the Ants, and Paul Hardcastle “19”… n-n-n-n-nineteen’ – you know the one. So my little 7-inch record collection wasever growing – The BeeGees, Michael Jackson, Phil Collins, Prince (“When Doves Cry”), and Eurythmics. However, I also remember these little records not being looked after very well, or maybe it was just the excitement of the music – they got chucked around a lot, and then they’d get scratched or the little middle bit would pop out and it wouldn’t then fit on the deck. There goes another one – down to Woolworths to get some more. A shame, I wish I still had them all.
Then came the love of the LP – we had a few of them in the house my favourite being the Eagles’ Hotel California and Lou Reed’s Transformer, which I actually just re-purchased in a charity shop up the road. It’s amazing what records you can find in UK charity shops at the moment. There are a lot of people throwing out a lot of vinyl and you can pick up some real gems for virtually nothing – even if you don’t have a turntable, still nice to have them.
I’ll be getting my album Tall Stories pressed up on vinyl. It’s got to be done and I’d love to hear it being played on an old turntable. Also, you can’t really beat seeing the artwork for your own album in its full glory on a 12-inch record sleeve. I might look after my copy a little better than I did those poor little 7- inch singles.”
—Humphrey Milles
