Past Now

A few years ago I was given probably one of my favourite things I own today. A record player. It was something I had wanted for ages, I had previously spent many a nights cooped up in my friends living room listening to great music, sharing many bottles of wine and indulging in generally great conversation, only pausing to flip or change records. There was something I found incredibly enchanting about vinyl. Don’t get me wrong the clarity and crispness of mp3 is brilliant, but there is something warming about those crackles and the faint sound of the record spinning that are illuminated through the speakers. I suppose the sound quality of vinyl is a bit more like people. The sound will never be perfect but the imperfection’s is what makes them interesting.

Anyway that’s the background and that’s when I started devoting more time to trawling through the crates or vinyl’s hidden on the floor in many of my local charity shops. I would spend hours and days flicking through the boxes, often realising that I had seen every record in the box on my previous charity shop rampage. However it was always worth is as time to time I would come across some real hidden gems.
The find I talk about in this blog entry came when going to meet a friend whom I was taking for a culture filled day in central London. I had planned every detail to the day’s events, except for this find! But this find is now a part of the day and whenever I listen to it reminds me of what a great tie I had, It added value to some already priceless memories.
The Find was something I had been crossing my fingers and toes to find for ages, 1983's ‘Now that’s what I call music – Volume 1’. I had over several months prior to this picked up volumes 2-15 with only 12 and 3 missing. Granted some of the music is quite cheesy and some of the artists Barnet’s are truly awful, but I was intrigued. I wanted to know what the first song on the first ever Now was, yes I could of probably looked it up on the Internet, but where the fun in that. Life about experiencing things, I WANTED TO EXPERIENCE NOW 1!

I refused to look on the track list to see what the first song was, as difficult and as tempting it was. I also wanted to share the experience so I got my friends round, who had probably had enough of hearing me babble on about how I really wanted the original Now, and we put on side A……………..Can you guess what the first song ever on Now is?


Like it or lump, It is the first ever song! We carried on listening through it and I was pleasantly surprised by some of the tracks. That or the also surprisingly good wine had really started to kick in!
But that’s all down to taste (the music and the wine)

So judge for yourself.

Full Track listing:

Side One

1.             Phil Collins : "You Can't Hurry Love"
2.             Duran Duran : "Is There Something I Should Know"
3.             UB40 : "Red Red Wine"
4.             Limahl : "Only For Love"
5.             Heaven 17 : "Temptation"
6.             KC and the Sunshine Band : "Give It Up"
7.             Malcolm McLaren : "Double Dutch"
8.             Bonnie Tyler : "Total Eclipse of the Heart"

Side Two

1.             Culture Club : "Karma Chameleon"
2.             Men Without Hats : "The Safety Dance"
3.             Kajagoogoo : "Too Shy"
4.             Mike Oldfield : "Moonlight Shadow"
5.             Men at Work : "Down Under"
6.             Rock Steady Crew : "(Hey You) The Rock Steady Crew"
7.             Rod Stewart : "Baby Jane"
8.             Paul Young : "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)"

Side Three

1.             New Edition : "Candy Girl"
2.             Kajagoogoo : "Big Apple"
3.             Tina Turner : "Let's Stay Together"
4.             The Human League : "(Keep Feeling) Fascination"
5.             Howard Jones : "New Song"
6.             UB40 : "Please Don't Make Me Cry"
7.             Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack : "Tonight I Celebrate My Love"

Side Four

1.             Tracey Ullman : "They Don't Know"
2.             Will Powers : "Kissing with Confidence"
3.             Genesis : "That's All"
4.             The Cure : "The Lovecats"
5.             Simple Minds : "Waterfront"
6.             Madness : "The Sun and the Rain"
7.    Culture Club : "Victims"