Reading through the posts about NYE I noticed people talking about collective listening to things like “we decided to have a night in listening to Shaky’s latest and downing a carafe of Dubonnet”. Now I love my wife dearly but I would never put her through the tortture of putting a record on and getting her to listen to it with me. As a young teenager, this is fine – but even then I was never happy with the social pressure of immediately having to react to music.
I was once asked around to a workmate’s flat just so he could show me his Bang & Olufsen turntable – which was indeed very nice. But then he produced a freshly-bought copy of an REM LP and put it on – telling me to sit in a certain part of the couch to get the full benefit of the sound, After about 30 seconds, when I thought I was done, he made it very clear that – no – I had to stay to the end of the side. All the while, he studied my face for appreciative noises/nods. Of course, I had to stay for side 2 as » Continue Reading.