Welcome to Test Transmission Archive Reel 44. All the music here, was released between 1970 and 1976. The reason for this is a bit long winded but I will explain. There was always a lot of music in the house I grew up in. My older sister in her room, Mum and Dad playing records downstairs and then my room and my little mono record player which by 1975 had been retired and replaced by my 1st stereo. Then there was the radio, Radio One Two and Luxembourg were the stations that were always on. Late Sunday afternoon/eve we would all gather and listen to the Top 20 countdown and of course Thursday was Top of the Pops and then there was The Old Grey Whistle Test. In 1970/72 my very young record collection consisted of anything I had been given, A Peter and the Wolf LP, Scooby Doo and the Snowman Mystery various very scratched Beatles singles The Monster Mash, Dave and Ansell Collins Double Barrel and Top of the Pops, Hot Hits LPs. But I started to notice different and strange music coming from my sisters room. In the space of a year it had changed from David Cassidy to David Bowie. The very 1st single I ever bought with my own pocket money was Sparks, This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us. Purchased at Weston Heart. My sister’s records and tastes in music were moving and changing fast. John Peel’s Top Gear was on Saturday afternoon plus Sounds of the seventies which was mostly album tracks. I was lucky as my sister worked part time in an independent record shop (Just called record shops back then) and would come home with records, some with very odd looking covers and sometimes these were passed onto me. I had no idea who some of the bands were, but I excepted these odd and fine donations anyway. Another interesting thing passed onto me were the Record Label Catalogues /brochures. I had a pile of these and again I would flick through and wonder who a lot of these bands and musicians were. In school holidays and weekends myself and friend would loiter in the record shop randomly picking out albums and getting my sister to play them. As the 70s creaked on the Music Magazine Zig Zag appeared in the house to accompany the Melody Maker, Record Mirror, Sounds and New Musical Express (NME) There is no real order to the tracks in this mix, all just randomly thrown together as my brain half remembered sounds, extracts comments and moments that were corrected and/or confirmed by my Sister. That said the last 3 tracks had to be at the end. Signalling that something new was yet again being listened to in the house and drifting along the passage into my room.
