MV : "Gimmie back my bullets" by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Years back the first rock band i ever liked was Lynyrd Skynyrd, who lacked vowels but had plenty of great songs, like...

The chipophone

"The Chipophone is a homemade 8-bit synthesizer, especially suited for live chiptune playing. It has been built inside an old electronic organ..."

MV : "Pinball Wizard" by The Who

Since i was a young boy i played with my silver ball... or something.

The Idle Race - back to the story

A great slice of early Brum rock history. One of Jeff Lynne's and Roy Wood's old bands (though they were not in it together for long). The Idle Race never really made it in the late 1960s but did produce quite a lot of material and some influential plaudits.

Jeff Lynne grew up at 368 Shard End Crescent, the first house i lived at was #348 (he was long gone by the time i was there though, i was a baby anyway!) Quite an area for rock stars, a couple of members of the future Duran Duran lived nearby - Roger Taylor lived on the Crescent too. He lived next door to my Nan but had moved already by the time i was born. Apparently one of the future Duranies threw a brick at my Uncle. Missed luckily.

• Back to the Story (Amazon Link)
• Recent photos i took at Shard End

The Transformers OST

No not the more recent live action disasters, this is the soundtrack of the 80s animated Transformers movie and this album is a wonderful slice of 80s heavy metal. Its cheesy and heavy in equal amounts but i never tire of songs like "Instruments of destruction" and "Dare". The "soundtrack" part of the soundtrack is also pretty good such as the death of Optimus Prime music which is suitably sombre but fitting in with the heavy metal assault elsewhere.

I bought this CD years ago but it lay forgotton about deep in my store room. Recently i found the CD again and it sounds just as exciting and fresh as it did all those years ago. Can barely remember the actual film though.

• Transformers the Movie (Amazon Link)