“I grew up in the ‘60s and ‘70s in a large, working class Irish family in south London—10 kids plus Mum and Dad—and there was fabulous music coming out of every room and shiny black vinyl 45s, EPs, and LPs everywhere in our noisy house.”
“My sisters loved great pop music like The Beatles, Stones, soul and reggae and my older brothers ‘digged’ ‘heavier’ stuff…Dylan, Cream, Hendrix, and there was always plenty of traditional Irish music, rock & roll and Johnny Cash around. I was fascinated by vinyl as a child and studied the labels for more information and noticed the same RGM Productions credit on 3 great records—‘Telstar’ The Tornadoes, ‘Johnny Remember Me’ John Leyton, and ‘Have I The Right’ The Honeycombs.
I later on discovered that RGM meant Robert George Meek, the true name of sonic genius, maverick producer Joe Meek. I guess even at an early age I was attracted to outsiders. Psychedelic pop like ‘Strawberry Fields Forever,’ Traffic’s ‘Hole In My Shoe,’ and ‘Lazy Sunday’ Small Faces caught my attention—there’s a dreamy innocence that kids love and it still has the power to take you to an alternate universe. Glam rock was the omnipresent soundtrack to my teenage years and Roxy Music’s debut ‘Virginia Plain’ the very first 45 I ever bought.
I proudly put my initials PFC upon that beautiful Island label to indicate it was mine, all mine. It’s a very important record to me and still one of my all time favourites. Listening to them and Bowie was mind-blowing and led me to discover Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Mott the Hoople, etc. I loved soundtrack music to movies too—in particular the 2 true greats John Barry and Ennio Morricone.
I must admit I didn’t like ‘Anarchy In The UK’ when I first heard it, but by the third spin I decided it was one of the greatest records ever. The Ramones and Buzzcocks were next on my teenage radar and from there on I was solidly hooked on punk.
Music is addictive and you can’t beat vinyl for your real fix!”
—Peter Coyne
The Godfathers’ brand new double A side single “I’m Not Your Slave” and “Wild And Free” was released last week to coincide with the legendary British band’s 35th anniversary. It’s available now in clear red 7″ vinyl and 4 track CD here.
