It’s 1975. I’m saving up my pocket money (10p a week) and I finally have enough to buy Bohemian Rhapsody, the single. Queen. 75p. My very first record. 

Ed AyresEd Ayres

That’s if you don’t count the Wombles of Wimbledon album, Remember You’re a Womble, which frankly, I’d rather not. Remember or count.

I thought I was set with my music tastes for life. And then Mrs Parry happened. Mrs Parry was my music teacher at grammar school. She was Welsh, and with her music teacher magnificence (it’s a thing) she set the foundations of my music for the next 40 years. Mrs Parry made us listen and she made us sing. English hymns, Welsh hymns, folk music, Handel, Elgar, Purcell, it all came through Mrs Parry; her love for music thrust its way into our lungs and made its way out through our somewhat wayward singing. She had a way with choirs and a way with school orchestra arrangements...