This is an interesting topic…as far as I was concerned in the 80’s I found buying records very expensive…so each purchase was cherished…and even if my initial impression was not that favorable…I would keep playing the album…and it would sink in…(an example would be Lenard Cohen …I’m Your Man…) and I would end up enjoying it… Now with streaming…that has all gone…so musical enjoyment is different…I am now less tolerant…of not initially liking something…
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Absolutely. Had I not had to persevere once I’d bought an album, I’d never have become a Yes fan. That would probably also have impacted journeys into other genres too.
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Our house was burgled twice in the 80s. Our record collection never recovered from the 2 hits.
In 1982 I was in the US (Arizona and New Hampshire). I remember experiencing serious cold (-50 degrees windchill on Stratton Mountain) but skiing just about every day during the winter months. I started DJing a couple of shows a week for the little radio station in Concord and was mostly bringing in the latest UK music where I could. I was terrible but they needed people to fill the airtime slots. Most of the best music releases were coming from England then - The Police’s Ghost in the Machine and The Stones’ Tattoo You which had come out a few months earlier were HUGE, and there was a growing appreciation of UK synth and new wave bands such as Yaz (Yazoo) and the emergence of the new romantics with Duran Duran and ABC’s epic Lexicon of Love. And from Canada there were Men Without Hats, with the Safety Dance which was probably the most played record around at that time.
And then a scorching Summer spent a lot of the time in Arizona, where the hours of 4am to 8am were pleasant and any time after that it was like living in an oven. I got a Summer job working on a property development site (strimming brush mainly) with hours of 5.30am - 12.30pm, by which time it was so hot we would sneak into the back yard of one of the show houses and take a swim in the pool. Musicly that summer belonged to The Clash and Combat Rock…
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One benefit of streaming is that physical music/video media is virtually worthless to the thief. Had loads of CDs/DVDs/camera equipment stolen nearly 20 years ago. The physical media would probably not be worth their effort these days.
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How true!
Gadgets and video games on the other hand…
In one of the break-ins they were fortunate to scoop up a Betamax recorder 
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They’d have left a VHS one 
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Without making light of a burglary I now have in mind an image of the villains trying to work out which one the successful technology will be….
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It’s always been how much it would make selling it on in the pub later. Burglars who go after household goods are not intelligent, so wouldn’t even understand the long term value question. More likely desperate drug addicts.
Yes.
In 1982 (or approx depending on memory accuracy):
I’d just moved house, 3 bed terrace eith decent size lounge, in Reading, cost something like £21k. Mortgage was large proportion of income so limited disposable.
Hifi was Thorens TD150, possibly Coral 777ex cart, with DIY MC head amp, Radford HD250 amp, IMF TLS50ii speakers.
London was close enough to be accessible for live music and the new prog rock scene was in full swing, including local band Twelfth Nught.
Work was interesting and stimulating in a privately owned lab, a job I’d started 4 years earlier and had discovered the vocation for me.
With house move I was close enough to cycle to work instead of motorbike or car.
Something gelled with my workmates, doung social things together and building dome lasting friendships - something not since repeated (but later jobs at more senior level made friendships difficult)
At that point a chartered chemist, I had started working towards my professional postgrad qualification, and was lucky enough to live near enough to London to benefit from a 2 evening a week evening class that over several years helped focus and structure the private study needed. All highly absorbing and stimulating, though a lot of study needed.
I had a darkroom at hone, and dabbled in infrared photography.
All in all a very good year - I wouldn’t say the best, nor necessarily better than mow, just different.
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Indeed, the police suggested that I should visit the local pubs to see what was on offer!
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Had a great time during the early 80s, living in a bed-sit in High Wycombe.
Dank, damp and cramped, but me and my mates had a great time. Didn’t have a lot of money, but always had enough to go out.
Going back a bit earlier, in the 70s, during school holidays, we would go off on our bikes for the day. No idea where we were going or would end up, all Mum said was to be back in time for tea.
Sometimes, we’d put a tent on the bikes. During our travels, find a house with a big garden, field, orchard or something like that. Knock on the owners door and ask if we could camp for the night and usually they’d say yes. Back home the next day sometime.
I recall mentioning this to a lady work at work, albeit younger than me, a few years ago. She was absolutely aghast that we’d do that, “Too scary’’, she said.
We never had any issues and we are all still here today and pleased that life was so much more simpler and relaxed before the advent of mobile phones.
DG…
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And follow only innocent discovery and enjoyment, no polluting “social” media or self-promoting “influencers” or “celebrities”.
I have just remembered that I applied for a specialist post registration course in child and adolescent mental health nursing. At the time, I was working with adolescents with learning disabilities. I was accepted into it, starting in early 1983, which began my career in younger people’s emotional and mental health and several more years of studying and more qualifications after I completed the first mental health course ending up as a family therapist. A few friends and colleagues would gently tease me about my constantly being on courses after I shared that I found my school experience so awful. So actually a much bigger year than I initially remembered and maybe not preferable to today for me, it is certainly a pivotal point in my life that led to a great career and meeting lots of good friends over the years.
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Can you post a copy of it on here?
I’d never live it down! Also had the most awful yellow jacket on so probably looked more like a canary.
I went to the South Atlantic and 1982 was a watershed for me. I left the UK believing, like many others, that the politicians would sort it out before the conflict escalated. When we filled in our wills and wrote last letters home, I realised that a peaceful resolution was less likely.
When I returned to the UK, I could not believe the atmosphere of normality that awaited us. As a child, I had never really understood why my grandfather referred to events in his life as before or after the war (WW2). After the Falklands, my life was sharply divided into before and after our trip south.
When combatants returning from the Gulf war were later diagnosed with PTSD, I realised that there was a name for the struggles that I had been experiencing for many years. Today, I am in a much better place and rarely have nightmares any more.
Despite everything, I still enjoy the music of 1982.
As a form of retail therapy, I treated myself to a Nait when it appeared a year later. My only material regret back then was the theft of the Nait during a burglary. Unfortunately, the small print of my insurance policy excluded the loss of my treasured Nait. At the time, I replaced it with an NAD 3020B, which I still have. I use it in second and third systems in rotation with various CB and olive pre-amp/power amp combinations and a recapped Nait, Nait 2 and Nait 50.
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