My new CD storage unit and CD racks, made to measure by Rodel Furniture
For those who missed part one and two of this series- this blog is dedicated to Jane Frost, a friend of mine for 36 years in the UK. We were discussing how I missed so many of my possessions which were packed in Awali, Bahrain on 4 December 2021 and unpacked here in Palawan on 1.5.22. She asked me to let her know which I missed the most and why! Also, she wanted to know how I felt as I was reunited with them. In the first part of this blog I talked about how I missed my recipe books ( If you missed it click here The Things I missed the most- part one, my Recipe books ) and in the second part how I missed my books (Things I missed , part two, my books) and now it's the turn of my CD's ( for my Millennial readers they are the things we used to buy and insert into a player to listen to music before downloads and Spotify!)
I have a lot of CD's! Over 600 , bought in the UK, Bahrain and on my travels over the last 20 years. When I was in Kuwait in 2000 I had cassettes but as I left after only 6 months there I gave them away as I could not afford to take them back to the UK. Between 2000 and 2010 I drove up and down the UK running Training programmes and spent between 2 and 4 hours a day in my car. To break up the monotony I bought CD's and tried to replace the 300 cassettes I gave away.
In Bahrain I was given lots of CD's like this in return for bags of Compost!
Just like my books , several of which are signed by the author, I have several CD's which hold special memories for me . Several were a gift from an anonymous friend in Bahrain, we will just call him John, who exchanged them for bags of Compost. He introduced me to many new artists I had not heard of- like Heaton and Abbot ( formerly of the Beautiful South who I was a big fan of).
My signed CD from the Lighthouse family
This CD is a treasured possession, signed by Tunde, the lead singer of the band called the Lighthouse Family. I saw them play live at Alton Towers with M People and then I booked 2 tickets to see them again as a 30th Birthday present for my then girlfriend , Lorraine. A few weeks later they cancelled the concert and although they refunded my money Lorraine was very upset. I wrote a complaint letter to the Lighthouse Family record label. A few weeks later a parcel arrived with a letter of apology, signed CD's , posters and other merchandise for myself and Lorraine. Only my CD survived my many house moves since then!
Back in Bahrain I used to play my CDs in the car as we went shopping or to visit Awali after I retired. I would put a selection of CDs in a case to carry in the car and then get my passengers (Corleen or Patrick) to choose a CD and put it in the CD player, without showing me. Then when it started to play, I would shout out the name of the artist and sometimes the Album.
“Queen”
“Which album”
“Greatest Hits”
“Well done”
After a few years playing all my CDs I let them select
the CDs for the car and they had to polish the CD before putting it in the case
(to avoid scratches and sticky finger marks). Then they started getting cunning
and would put in film soundtracks and compilation CDs
I would listen to the first track and assume that was
the CD:
“Ogie Alcasid”
“Which CD?”
“Greatest hits”
“No”
“ Give me a clue”
“You bought it in Vigan"
“Love songs memorabilia?”
“No”
“I give up!”
“Original Pilipino Music 2018”
I remember buying 5 compilation CD's from outside Jollibee's from a Pinoy boy in 2018 for 100 pesos each!
By then we would be at our destination as nowhere was very far in Bahrain
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Here In the Philippines, it’s a whole different story! I am typing this at Eashanti’s in Port Barton which was a 4-hour drive from Puerto. They had just resurfaced part of the road so much of the ride was very smooth . Many roads here are unsurfaced ( like in Port Barton itself) or the old concrete surface has cracked making for a very bumpy drive. Next year I will buy a Toyota Hilux ( after much research with pick up drivers here for the best) which will glide over he rough roads. However in my first car here ( Toyota Wigo) I had to stop playing CDs as the bumpy roads make the CDs jump. After I had a puncture and the spare tyre turned out to be low on air the owner gave me his car which does not have a CD player!
Sometimes Corleen would misread the CD label , causing
much anger and amusement . One I remember went like this:
“Simon and Garfunkel, Old friends “ ( a
very distinctive album from the first few bars)
“No”
“ What do you mean, no, it’s “Simon and Garfunkel, Old friends“
“No”
“It’s a compilation then”
“no”
“ Give me a clue”
“ It’s a country beginning with C”
“ Canada”
“ No”
At this point I pulled the CD out of the player and
pointed at the album title and screamed
“See it’s “Simon and Garfunkel, Old friends”
Corleen pointed at the name of the record label on the
CD in black lettering
“No it’s not Tatay, Its Columbia”
“That’s the record label , Tangaa”
“ Don’t call me Tangaa!” ( it’s a rude Tagalog word
meaning slow or retarded that Patrick taught me)
The Divine Comedy- A Secret History
Other CDs bring back different happy memories like
this one from The Divine Comedy. I used to be a big fan of theirs and lead
singer Neil Hamon and had many of their CDs and went to see them play live in
Ireland. I even had a Divine Comedy Tee shirt and I wore it at work at
SITA on dress down day. One day a colleague asked if the tee shirt referred to the band
(which was not very well known then) or Dante’s work, the Divine Comedy. When I
said it was the band, he told me the Bass player was a friend of his. Small
world!
Other CD’s in my collection remind me of Gig’s I went to like the last gig I saw in 2009 before I left the UK at the famous Hamden park stadium in Glasgow ( it is the normal home venue of the Scotland national football team) where I saw Coldplay perform. I saw the tickets advertised in the paper while running a course in Scotland, called the number, bought a ticket and paid with my credit card , drove over, collected the ticket and had lunch and then went to the gig. The stadium was only half full and another guy sat behind me was telling his friend the same story loudly on his mobile
“ Guess where I am?”
“Coldplay gig at Hamden park”
“Yes, its amazing , half full”
“ Just saw it advertised in the paper this morning,
called them , drove over and got the ticket”
My free Coldplay CD we got as we left the gig
When I was at Huddersfield as a student I used to help out on the bars for the concerts and we would go to the Great Hall in the afternoon and deliver all the stock and get everything ready and then I would stay until the gig started and the other staff arrived.
My Paul Young CD reminds me of my days on Poly ENTS at Huddersfield
At one gig by Paul Young I was sat quietly in the bar when there was a knock on the door and Paul Young was standing there
“ Are you Neil?”
“ Yes, Paul, how can I help you”
“ Steve ( Manager of Poly Ent's) said if I asked nicely
you would get me a drink!”
“Sure, what would you like?”
As this conversation occurred around 1979, 43 years
ago , I cannot remember what he had! I do remember he sat behind the bar
with me for a while chatting and drinking and later , during the gig, dedicated
a song to “ The man behind the bar called Neil!”
My first Eva Cassidy CD
I hope I have given you enough stories inspired by my CDs but I will end with one last one. I was at my brother , Richard’s, house in the UK many years ago, maybe 2005, and he was playing an amazing CD with a female singer. I asked who it was and he said “Guess”. I suggested various black female artists like Eartha Kit and Ella Fitzgerald but it was none of them and eventually I gave up . He showed me the CD case and a book he had about the artist, Eva Cassidy.
You can find out more about Eva Cassidy here Eva Cassidy
She was a white American who worked as a gardener and sang as a hobby .Her boyfriend, a record producer, persuaded her to record some tracks. Sadly she died in 1996 from Melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, aged just 33. He persuaded her parents to let him release the tracks posthumously. They were picked up by a popular DJ on Radio Two in the UK, who also, sadly, since died, Terry Wogan, and they became very popular. I rushed to my then local music store in Mere Green and asked if he had any Eva Cassidy CD's . Spookily he was a fan and showed me 5 of the 11 Eva Cassidy CDs which I bought. He then suggested another similar artist and I bought several of her CDs as well!
My next job for a rainy day with Julios is to find the cases for all the CDs that have become separated from their cases. We already started to give them all a clean and polished the CD racks. Back in 1986 when my OCD was worse, I had all my cassettes in alphabetical order in Worcester. If I bought a new Eva Cassidy cassette, I would have to move all the cassettes whose artist names started with D – Z down to make for it. Now they are all jumbled up since I moved house and they will stay that way ( happy now Mr G??!!)
Then all I need is a CD player as I gave mine away
before I left Bahrain as it kept sticking. I have been looking for 3 months now
but keep getting blank looks from the Millennial sales people! Maybe I should
go to an antique shop! So, if you know where I can buy a CD player in Palawan
email me on Thebritishkabayan@gmail.com
Something like this then I can take it on my vacations
I would like to thank Ming, the Eashanti cat, for her
help with this blog. She scared the hell out of me jumping up onto the table where I was typing at 5 am, walked up and down the keyboard a few times and then fell asleep so I had to move the laptop and type over the top of her sleeping!
Ming, the Eashanti cat "helping" with the blog!
I will end with a line from a song
“Music was my first love, and it will
be my last, music of the future and music of the past”
See and hear the song by clicking the link : John Miles- Music
Ingat Palagi and Kita kits
Hello, I am The British Kabayan! Feel free to read my stories.
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