I won’t pretend TD were my favourite band, they weren’t and probably wouldn’t have made the top 10 even, but they were musically unique in my collection with perhaps only the odd Eloy album or two being slightly comparable. By the time I’d passed through college I owned just about all the back catalogue to the end of the Virgin era and a dozen or so random later releases, I think the last off-the-shelf album I bought was “Rockoon” which I recall I didn’t particularly enjoy.
As it so often happens with people though, life got in the way of music. I started work, got on the property ladder, got married, had a kid and had no money at all to speak of. And there was certainly no more lying on my bed in the dark with the headphones on..!! I sold off my vinyl and just kept a few hundred CDs, none of which were TD ones.
As the years pass by though I’ve gradually got back into rebuilding the collection, adding new discoveries alongside old favourites and around 12 months ago I was in Manchester with my brother in tow, feeling all the better for a couple of pints of real ale in Wetherspoons, when I paid a visit to Fopp Records, and there in front of me were brand new remasters of Poland and Zeit. Needless to say, I picked both up and have never looked back. Honestly, it’s been like discovering the band all over again. Perhaps fate that my interest has been re-kindled just as Esoteric have begun to remaster some of the titles too..!! Pergamon especially has been a revelation as I never originally owned that title.
I’ve also bought some of the latter “Cupdiscs” to see what the band are up to currently and have been impressed with everything I’ve heard. So, here I am, once again enjoying TD but perhaps regretting letting them slip in the first place and now utterly daunted by the vast back-catalogue they seem to have amassed since last time I looked
Cheers
Andy
