Electric Warrior was barely off my turntable in 1971,I use that term loosely,Hitachi music centre!
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First three albums, in order, were
Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
Deep Purple - InRock
Pink Floyd - Meddle
We did not have a record player until I got an old Dansette “luggable” from an auntie so never had singles, the dansette coming in my early teens.
Still have them all and still sometimes play them, only Pink Floyd has minimal deterioration on it.
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Genesis -A Trick of the Tail
Bought from Subway Records in Fareham shopping mall, to celebrate passing my Maths O level in August 1976.
I wore it out and bought another copy about fifteen years later. Barely played since!
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Madness - One Step Beyond. Bought from Bostocks Records in Manchester Arndale.
I think my first album bought with my own money was the Wombles 
But my first single was Scott Joplin’s “the entertainer”. Which is probably a bit cooler 
especially when I learned to play it passably well a few years later
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Surely not, Chris?!
I used to borrow and play my Sister’s copy. And then when I was in the States the local Pitchfork Records had a copy the Mobile Fidelity label and at while it was a bit of a financial stretch at $18, I couldn’t resist. I played it just a few days ago and it still sounds great - certainly one of the better early MOFI efforts.
Pretty sure this was my first lp purchase.
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Released October 31, 1967
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I’m struggling to remember with certainty. I think it was The Beatles’ Abbey Road, which was certainly the first record I played through my first hifi system, the album released as I was still building the speaker cabinets so I had a sneak preview by putting the drivers into makeshift enclosures comprising armchairs with cushions packed around the drivers to make an enclosure. Wow, the bass on Here comes the sun was a new delight, never having heard anything that low before!
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Growing up in a country where LPs were quickly abandoned for cassettes and CDs, my first music purchase was a cassette copy of the album Bad by Michael Jackson. This is back in the time where he was a pop & dance phenomenon everywhere. I would listen to this in my older brother’s Walkman.
But to properly respond the question, my first LP was Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Many, many years later.
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Well I’m pleased you got a good version.
I had a Damascene moment when I saw Elvis Costello and The Attractions on Top of The Pops doing Watching the Detctives. Basically, my world changed!
From the net, here’s a bag from Subway Records, Fareham:
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What a great idea for a thread!!
The first record I ever bought was a single in 1981 ish and was Ultravox ‘Vienna’ and I played it on my parents 1950’s style record player with one of those rolldown type lids and valve amplification and a built in speaker!
The first album I ever bought was in the record department of Morrisons supermarket in Southport and compared to some of you who started with Abbey Road or T Rex or the Rolling Stones I am slightly ashamed!!
The second album I ever bought had slightly more credibility!
Fortunately not long after that my Father decided to buy a Technics rack system which was a gigantic upgrade in quality and in fact meant I had access to by far the best hifi system of any of my friends. It was the start of a long and expensive (and utterly enjoyable) journey!!
Jonathan
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Great postings and stories, thanks to all contributors.
I hope this reminds a little of old days when life began as an avid music listener.
I was inspired by the idea of further thinning my collection and found some old records that wanted to be played again.
I also remember my first hi-fi, a Telefunken tape recorder, Magnetophon. Purchased from my first self-earned money on installment. I had to borrow a turntable or drag the tape recorder to my friend to record music. A short time later a Dual 1912 (I think) came in. That was the start of collecting records and I’m still doing this with growing enthusiasm even after 50 years.
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I think the thing with the first music people choose for themselves, whether LP (for those of us over a certain age), or any other medium, ther was the magic of choosing it and listening to it and playing it in the company of friends,. And certainly with LPs back when I was first there, the very LP itself was like magic: a spinning disk with a groove from which was extracted sound - but what exquisite sound!
Now that of course applied to singles, though actually I bought very few (first was Get Back). Just as with LPs the single sometimes had an intriguing label: e.g. an Apple (long before the Mac), or a psychedelic spiral to induce Vertigo, or the eponymous Harvest label that told you before playing it was something wild and different… Albums had a sleeve and sleeve notes, and maybe gatefold, or a bookelet - oooh how that added to the magic, opening and reading/studying the sleeve while playing the music. That was indeed alluring, and absolutely captivating. And as you can probably tell, even talking about it now takes me back… CDs never did it - yes, a booklet or whatever, but the small size made it seem sanitised - a poor imitation of the real thing (except opera, where the insert with the libretto was like a book, and no ridiculous keep turning over every 20 min). And streaming - well, there’s the internet, and infinite information toaccompany, but where’s the magic in that (!)?
Yet even now, with my collection all digital (including ripped vinyl as well as ripped CDs), playing one of those Records that I bought in my early HiFi days from 1969 through at least the first half of the 70s, the power of memory kicks in and I feel the excitement, the magic, as if I was still opening the LP sleeve, whether to play Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Deep Purple, Who, Pink Floyd, Ten Years After, Edgar Broughton, Rolling Stones, Van der Graaf, etc etc
Then of course the musical memory can transport one back in time instantly - so every time I play the “second side” (meaningless streaming!) of Abbey Road I hear my original makeshift speakers as I was building my first hifi system (cf my fiirst post above).
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Early purchases were singles Beatles, Kinks, Small Faces, Zombies. DOFP was my first album purchase though I used to get records out of the local library and record them until I could afford to buy: Sgt Pepper, 5000 Spirts, Village Green.
Before that, I found in amongst the albums in the house a copy of Folk Roots, New Roots by Shirley Collins & Davy Graham and as the other stuff was Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra etc., which to this day I can’t stand, I played Shirley’s album every chance I got.
At school, we were taught the songs of Eleanor Farjeon. I can still remember the words.
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The first single I bought was Go Now by the Moody Blues,1965,strange thing is, I was only 8yrs old! Parents tried to steer me to something a bit more light hearted,but apparently I insisted,they must have thought they had a very strange child !
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Focus - Moving Waves - 1971 Blue Horizon / UK LP / 2931 002
2001 Red Bullet / Holland CD / RB 66 188
1988 EMI / Holland CD / CDM 7 48862 2
Still have this LP in mint condition! Attracted by the wonders of the radio airplay of the Single ‘Hocus Pocus’ I bought the LP and marvelled at the musicianship and music I heard. Jan Akkerman’s guitar solo’s on the epic side two ‘Eruption’ track are still my all time favourite.
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A great album! But my own first of theirs was Question of Balance because my brother had bought the others - I backfilled a few years later after leaving home.
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My discovery of Focus was similar, with Eruption my favourite track of theirs - still gets frequent play today, though my LP wore out so long since replaced by CD.
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