A collage of teenage idiocy

To keep me away from F••k Off I'm Fat and similarly awful evening TV, I've found myself photographing my record collection, bit by bit, starting with the 7" vinyl singles. One day I'll even digitise them, as quite a few don't exist electronically. It's a record mostly of my gullibility: faced with the combined opinions of NME and the staff at Cob Records of Bangor (RIP), I bought pretty much anything they recommended.

Of the 250 I've snapped so far (we're just about into the Cs), I can't remember what quite a few of them sound like, while others just make me cringe. WHY did I buy a Cranberries single? Still, no censorship: teenage/early-20s me made those choices and I'll have to live with them. It's rather exciting rediscovering gems like Against Country Teasers, though it's sad too: all those hopeful bright young things who thought they'd conquer the world, and didn't. Sad too when I remember the 400 records I had to sell one summer to pay the rent - it's like a smile with missing teeth. Like Ash's 'Uncle Pat', 'Petrol' and Japanese-release of 'Punk Boy', their best songs. Gone.





Still, I've still a fine collection of lovely ephemera: picture discs and coloured vinyl and hopelessly optimistic 'limited editions', inserts, art prints, the lot. A whole subculture fossilised in my flat.

Anyway, as a collage (see the whole thing so far here), they look rather beautiful. If you want to relive the mid-90s, go to the Flickr page and find (most of) these tracks on Youtube. At least one person has already started this cultural odyssey.

As a taster, here's 'Glass Static', by Assembly Line People Program. Who didn't make it. Their 'Noise Vision' (second row, far right) is TRANS001, the first release on Blur guitarist Graham Coxon's Transcopic label. 

If any of you still doubted my trainspottery maleness, that should do the trick.