1. Various ArtistsStardust

We lived near the barracks in Germany, and it sounds like a sitcom – they were obviously doing serious things too. The thing I was most afraid of as a kid was the Baader Meinhof gang. My parents were young, and these were 70s compilations for 70s parties – to have a variety of music was quite difficult, it wasn’t like it is now. It’s nice to have a sense of time that wasn’t yours. We also had these two books, Rock Encyclopedia Volumes One and Two that I used to read and learn about Big Boppa, Chuck Berry, rock & roll and the blues without really knowing or hearing the music. Stardust was a record that my parents played a lot, and it had great songs and great music though I never really knew who the artists were. There was also a lot of reggae, so I’d choose Trojan Records too. For ages I thought their covers were the original versions, that all songs were reggae, and then when I heard the originals I thought ‘that’s not right!?’. When you’re a kid you don’t understand that there are different versions of things – you have your version and then when you hear another version you’re offended.