The First Album I bought… The Debut Albums That Inspired Music Legends

numberA of famous friends, artists and performers share the first album they purchased. The one record that started their journey in music. If you are anything like me you have probably wondered where your favourite artist gained the inspiration to ‘get into’ music. Well wonder no more! here is a pretty full list of top named artists who we asked one simple question “What was the first album you ever bought, and what did it mean to you ” The list is long, distinguished and without doubt the responses are more than interesting.

Make sure you check out the full list, there are some big names towards the bottom that shouldn’t be missed. These include, Joey Tempest, Foy Vance and the brilliant John Waite.

TIM FINN

The first album I bought … Beatles For Sale….”Baby’s In Black” and “Eight Days A Week” spring to mind…the cover looked unattainably cool to a young lad in Te Awamutu..my kids sing those songs now, which is hugely enjoyable”.

JOHN WAITE

The first album I bought was an e.p. it was called Shadows to the Four. They were the biggest band before the Beatles in Britain. It was instrumental guitar music. Their guitar player was the Hendrix of his day and inspired countless young boys to stand in front of the mirror playing a tennis racket pretending to be the one and only Hank B. Marvin. My brother and I went in on it together. It was the best music I’d heard in my young life. Well worth every penny.

GARETH DUNLOP

The first album I remember buying with my pocket money was a Best of Lynyrd Skynyrd. I would have been around 13 or 14 and just beginning to mess with the guitar. Before the days of catch up tv – I remember hearing ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ on a show and immediately needing to hear it again.

I’d no idea what the song was called or who was singing it…so I walked up to HMV and mumbled a bit of the chorus that I could remember to someone behind the till and they pointed me towards the album.

NIK KERSHAW

The First album I bought was “Aladdin Sane” by David Bowie. To a fifteen year old middle class grammar school boy, Bowie was something truly exotic, otherworldly and inspiring. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.

FOY VANCE

The first album I remember buying from my own money (if there is such a thing when you’re 10) was bought in Limerick and paid for with the pocket money I’d been given to last for the whole week. It was a compilation tape of Jackson 5 love songs.

I got it from a petrol station on a hot summers day on the road home from a summer camp where I fell in love with Nicola Lavery. I bought it because it had ‘Farwell my summer Love’ on it… it was all very sweet until I got home and started listening to the Sex Pistols again, and forgot that she existed.

RICK MCMURRAY (ASH)

The first album I bought with my own money was with cash given to me for sitting the 11 plus so you can probably figure out how old I was. I’d been obsessed with Live After Death by Iron Maiden ever since my older brother brought it home on vinyl.

Based on this I decided to spend my dosh on Powerslave, partly because of the artwork and partly due to the songs I’d heard on Live After Death. It was beyond exciting to put the needle on my first vinyl but after a few listens I had to admit I was a little disappointed. The songs I already knew were amazing, but the deeper cuts just didn’t hit me the same. It did however cement my love of live albums, and taught me the power of great cover art. 

JOFF ODDIE (WOLF ALICE)

The first album I bought was ‘All killer no filler’ by rock giants…. Sum 41.

JOEY TEMPEST (EUROPE)

The first album I bought was probably the live album “Made in japan” with Deep purple. I was amazed how well all the bandmembers played their instruments. I think it came out 1973, but I got it a few years later. We used to play this record at parties and start planning how we also could be a successful touring rockbound.

KYLE JOHN SUCKLING

The first album I bought was “Outlandous du amour by The Police. I listened to John Peel every night in bed before I went to sleep. John’s voice was fantastic for radio!!! He said he had recently seen a new band “ The Police” at a small pub in Kensington and they were destined for big things so he played their new single “Roxanne” I instantly fell in love with their music. I bought every album they ever made. RIP John Peel. 

DAVY WATSON

The first album I bought was Who – Live at Leeds. My parents, v my sister, bought me The Who Story – a double album of hits for my Xmas box, while my sister bought me Slayed. At eleven years of age I was already a huge Slade fan but also became a Who fan by default – my sisters choice. Being the only two albums I owned at the time, they got played relentlessly over that Xmas in ’72 and beyond.

So I became a Who fan by proxy and it was a natural progression that I went on to discover more of their music through the Who – Live at Leeds, the first album I bought with my pocket money. I had bought singles up until this point, but I was getting serious now with albums. I remember the liner notes with receipts from equipment rental that was never returned as it was smashed up gig after gig. I was learning guitar at this point and wanting to be in a band, this whole album experience was mind blowing! It is a classic album that I love to this day!

JEFF PILSON : DOKKEN, FOREIGNER

The first record I remember buying was All Right Now by the Free, although I actually shoplifted it (don’t do this at home kids!!!!). Hey I was 12. But I remember the sound of the record just blew me away. The way the guitars sounded were so heavy- and the voice was so cool. Then the bass line sent me to another place. Still love that song.

ALEXANDRA ANTONOPOULOS (HONEYCRUSH)

Sarah McLachlan’s album Surfacing was the first CD I bought with my own money. I’d listened to it on my Walkman for hours and feel so much listening to her voice. It wasn’t a popular choice for an 11 year old but I do think it informed maybe something about what I love in music. It made me feel vulnerable and mysterious.

BETH ROWLEY

The first album I bought was The Bodyguard soundtrack on cassette- I must have been 8 or 9…I recently bought it again and its pretty funny…a real nostalgia trip.

PAUL CARRACK

The first album I bought… ‘Please please me’ by the Beatles. My brother is 4 years older than me that had already bought albums by ‘The Shadows’ and Buddy Holly’ which I loved but this was the first I’d bought with money saved from Christmas and birthday. I was already playing drums in a band at school and this album was the one that excited me and inspired me so much to want to be a musician.

I played along to this album, played on a ‘Dansette’ record player, over and over again in the attic above the shop where we lived. It was the culmination of my childhood dream to get to play on tour with Ringo’s All Starr Band in 2003.

MICHAEL MORMECHA

I was working in Creations furniture store in Belfast 2001. On my break I ran round to HMV and bought ‘Come To Daddy’ by Aphex Twin, that was the start of a realisation and recognition that electronic music could be vicious and heavy too, something extremely influential in my own music creation.

CIARAN GRIBBIN

The first album I bought was Metallica ‘Kill em All’ I was Twelve years old when i bought my first Album. All my friends at school had already got their copies and were raving about how good it was. I still vividly remember opening that double sleeve vinyl LP, I remember how cool it looked, being shocked by the artwork and that sweet smell of the vinyl.

MALOJIAN

The first album I bought, (rather than copied), was The Beatles’ “Let It Be”. I bought it on 12″ vinyl in Virgin Megastore in Belfast one Saturday afternoon when I was about 12. I still have it. “Phase one, in which Doris gets her oats.” Style!

LEO ABRAHAMS

Nik Kershaw – Human Racing (I was 7). I used to listen to it every single day on the way to school and I still think it’s brilliant.

RACHEL AUSTIN

Louis Armstrong: What a Wonderful World. At the age of 9, I was struck by the sweeping beauty of this song in contrast to Louis’s raspy voice. To my youthful delight, I fell in love with the whole of this album.

WALLIS BIRD

The first album I bought was Tori Amos – ‘Under the Pink’ I’d listened to my sister’s ‘Boys for Pele’ and decided to buy her new album myself. It’s extremely dynamic and meant a lot to me.

KATHERINE BLAMIRE (SMOKE FAIRIES)

I got £1 a week pocket money, so it was kind of tricky to get them. The first album I actually bought was a panpipe compilation album called “The Haunting Sound of the Panflute”. I bought it because they were selling it in the market for £1.  It wasn’t very haunting, just kind of reverb soaked high pitched annoyingness.

BEN CASTLE (DUKE SPECIAL / BETH ROWLEY)

The first album I bought was Deepest Purple – The Very Best of Deep Purple. I was 9, it changed my life. I was a boy obsessed. Now I’m a man obsessed.

VERNON REID (LIVING COLOR)

The first album I bought with my own money was Cosmic Slop by Funkadelic.

JESSICA DAVIS (SMOKE FAIRIES)

When I was young I was obsessed with the Carpenters. I think it was probably a carpenters album from Woolworths.

CARA DILLON

The first album I bought was A Ha – Hunting High And Low, Morten Harket was so gorgeous. And their songs were brilliant. Also, my four sisters were mad about them and wouldn’t let me borrow their copies so I had to buy my own.

BEN GLOVER

The first album I purchased was “The Best Of Buddy Holly” after hearing his song “Everyday” in a film. I must have been about 12, can’t recall the film, but do remember it being the first time I actually had a compulsion to put my pocket-money into a record.

RICKY MCAULEY (PANAMA KINGS)

The first album i bought was nevermind by nirvana. This album has a great sense of drive and power from a drummers point of view. each song is magical!

RORY NELLIS

The first album I bought was ‘The Muppet Show’ album (I was in to music from a very young age).  I remember vividly my sister taking me to Our Price with my saved up pocket money to get hold of the masterpiece.  Granted, it didn’t teach me everything I know about music, but I did learn what it was to own ‘recorded’ music.  I just pulled it out again and it still stands up.

JULIET TURNER

The first album I bought was the Everly Brothers Greatest Hits. My sisters and I listened to it non stop on holiday one summer and we still do the most emotive cover version of Ebony Eyes you have ever heard, with tear-inducing harmonies and we even include the announcement from the air traffic control tower.

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