My earliest childhood memory of “getting into” a song was when I was only 4 years old. My mother bought my brother and me a copy of The Move’s Blackberry Way. I wasn’t even old enough to have a clue what the words were but I happily listened to it time after time. Now I listen to it and realise that its wonderful melody, orchestration, the hint of psychedelia and melancholy is something I am still constantly striving to achieve with my own material.

The Move were formed in Birmingham in 1966, and were a crucial part of the British Invasion movement and played a major role in shaping the sound of the rock and roll scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The band's lineup consisted of lead vocalist and bassist Carl Wayne, guitarist Trevor Burton, drummer Bev Bevan, and keyboardist Roy Wood. 

The Move achieved their biggest success in the UK with "Blackberry Way," which reached the top of the charts in 1969. They also had several other Top 40 hits in the UK, including "I Can Hear the Grass Grow," "Flowers in the Rain," and "Fire Brigade." 

Despite this success in the UK, The Move struggled to gain the same level of recognition in the US. Their biggest hit in the US was "Brontosaurus," which reached the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1971. 

In 1972, The Move disbanded, with Wood and Bevan going on to form the influential rock group Electric Light Orchestra of MR Blue Sky fame. Roy Wood also formed Wizard who had a massive Xmas hit with "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day". Despite their relatively short time together, The Move left a lasting impact on popular music and are fondly remembered as a pioneering force in British rock music. 

These days my computer allows me to record as many crystal clear tracks as I like, probably too many, but when I recorded my first song things were a whole lot different. 

I was 10 years old and I had a Philips cassette player/recorder. It could record one take and play it back. I remember my brother used it to record Bohemian Rhapsody off Top of The Pops, the first time it was in the charts. 

Anyway, I would record myself strumming away and then play and sing along with the recording. And that was it until in ’78 we got a stereo sound system with another cassette recorder built in. 

Now I could play and sing along to my first recording using the Philips and record the result on the new system. This is like a LoFi version of what loopers do these days. 

The problem with this is that if you then take the resulting recording and try to do it again and add a third “track” the resultant hiss is generally unbearable and there is little in the way you can “mix” the track. Great for songwriting ideas though. 

So with a £16 cassette recorder and a bit of ingenuity, my songwriting and recording career was on its way. 

Stuart

This one’s similar but not quite the same as the one we had. This one looks a bit posher.

In 1973 our teacher, Mr Burton, started giving us guitar lessons. We all had a go, some better than others. It was fun. And after a few lessons of picking out Skip to My Lou, we then progressed to our first real song. Leaving On a Jet Plane. It’s amazing how much can be done with just three chords. We were pop stars.

So that was my start at 8 years old. Moving swiftly on, when I was 10 my parents bought me an Electric guitar for Xmas. It was awful and we took it back in January and traded it in for a wonderful 1963 Hofner Galaxie. This wasn’t vintage then, it was second-hand. I’ve still got it and it’s worth a great deal more than the £100 my mother paid for it.

I continued learning and trying to play anything I liked, mostly the Beatles. Now I was teaching myself and had hit a bump. My fingers just weren’t big enough to play bar chords. 

In 1978, Grease hit my world and I immediately bought the sheet music. It was all bar chords. I would just have to make those fingers stretch. Lo and behold I was there. My first song played with bar chords. Grease. 

Stuart