"Fireworks" played on UK radio show

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I've told this story so many times but i was just browsing the shelves of my local MVC store and the civer just caught my eye.

I can appreciate the importance of hearing an artists work in advance in order to become interested in that artist but sometimes you have to go with gut instincts, that you've discovered something very special musicially even if you havn't even heard it yet.

When I was growing up, I discovered so much of the music I ended up loving just by taking a chance coz I liked the cover. Particularly when I was first learning my way around classical music. This must seem amazing to younger people now I guess, who are used to being able to sample a musician's work via the internet - for pop/rock music you had the radio, or you could listen to a bit of the record in the shop, but for other types of music, yep - we pretty much just took our chances.

This was in the days when albums cost £1.99, of course.

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Particularly when I was first learning my way around classical music.......for pop/rock music you had the radio, or you could listen to a bit of the record in the shop, but for other types of music, yep - we pretty much just took our chances.

Um,Radio 3???

If I heard a bit of music that made me sit up on R3, I would then pore over the pages of the Penguin Stereo Record Guide to see which was the top recommendation. Often the ones with the worst covers ...but I'd buy them from my local 2nd hand record shop,tape them and then sell them back.

If I'd bought LPs on the strength of the covers alone when I was a teenager I would probably have had loads of Ohio Players albums

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Um,Radio 3???

I didn't get into Radio 3 until I was older - as a teenager my listening time in the evenings was spent mainly with records, of which I had many. In the mornings getting ready for school I always had Radio 1 on, I don't think it would have occurred to me to listen to classical music at that time in the morning.

If I heard a bit of music that made me sit up on R3, I would then pore over the pages of the Penguin Stereo Record Guide to see which was the top recommendation. Often the ones with the worst covers ...but I'd buy them from my local 2nd hand record shop,tape them and then sell them back.

You were lucky having a secondhand record shop! I had Our Price and Woolies. I did used to borrow classical stuff from the library though, and record it. The library was more helpful to me than anything else with the classical side, I think.

Strangely enough, I didn't have that many duds from going on covers ... or maybe it was just that, having handed over my hard-earned babysitting money, I was determined to find something to like in everything I bought.