THOSE WERE THE DAYS

I have been with RC since the start and I hope to be with you for a few more years yet. I became a fan of The Beatles in 1977 and started buying The Beatles Book Monthly from issue 14 in June 1977. It was natural that I should continue to read RC after it formally separated from The Beatles Book as my interest in music was very general, albeit limited by funds.

The first single I bought was Beyond The Shadow Of A Doubt by Billy Fury and it came out of a cheap box of ex-chart records. I think I paid six shillings (30p) for it. The shop was a general electrical and record shop and had the old fashioned booths where you could listen to music before you purchased. As a boy I was a fan of T Rex after listing to my brother’s copy of Electric Warrior. But the influence of Punk and university introduced me to Stiff Records which became another obsession of mine, and I saw Wreckless Eric on several occasions.

Today, I do own an iPod but still buy vinyl and CDs and have kept every musical item that I ever bought. I still look forward a complete Stiff feature to update the one you published in March 1980.

I am also the proud owner of an original copy of Won’t You Be My Girl by the Vice Creems signed by RC’s own Kris Needs. It was signed while he was working in a small newsagents in Leighton Buzzard where I lived; I wonder if he remembers those days? I also wonder who else would have bought this and Ringo Starr’s Drowning In The Sea Of Love at the same time, but they are great records with the bonus of being good investments .

 Kris says he does indeed remember those days but points out, slightly miffed, that when you met him he was working as a local newspaper reporter, not a newsagent. Ed

by John W Stevens
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