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I was about ten years old  when I went to my first concert. Music has always been really important to me. At Junior school we argued the relative merits of Cliff and Elvis until the Beatles and the Stones hijacked our lives. I fell asleep listening to Radio Luxembourg and Radio Caroline from an early age - absorbing lyrics subliminally. Johnnie Walker signing off with "Let me wrap you in my warm and tender love". Lunch time discos at the girls' grammar school I went to featured records hot from the Twisted Wheel. 1967's Summer of Love took me into new worlds.

The first LP I bought was the Temptations' 'Getting Ready'. The second was Love's 'Forever Changes'. My father had already introduced us to Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Dave Brubeck on one of his flying visits back from working abroad. 

There's a soundtrack to my life. Songs and lyrics are more evocative for me than any smell of baking. I know I'm not the only person that feels this, and I find that if I let myself focus on the memories, I can recall the experiences. Nearly five decades of seeing live music, as well as listening to radio and records, and all the other ways you can access music nowadays. You tube is amazing for reliving the past - every style of music exists simultaneously through the internet. In recent years I've shared old and new musical interests with my three children - something that's constantly evolving and developing.

I'm starting this new blog as a travel through time, but I may change that plan to respond to events - the sad recent death of Captain Beefheart inspired me to put a piece on my first blog, Life and Death in the Peak District - it's the last post (no pun intended, but I quite like the idea of that).

Music has always been my inspiration and comfort - and live music, going to see bands, working in clubs and concert halls has been a really important part of my life - and continues to be so.

I hope you'll enjoy reading these experiences as much as I'll enjoy recalling them.