Bumpers

My Uncle Dave in Stoke was a useful musical resource in my teenage years. He may have been somewhat of a bad lad in the past and he did have LOVE and HATE tattooed on his knuckles but he also had some pretty good records by what I might term the ‘Dinosaur Rock’ bands that I was  getting into off the back of my own unhealthy interest in the music of  Jethro Tull – albums by Family, Mountain, Colisseum and the like. I did have to put up with his insistence on demonstrating the quality of his stereo system by playing Jean Michel Jarre albums and he did once think that the Velvet Underground tape I got him to record for me was unsuitable – I think by dint of misunderstanding what he thought were the somewhat sweary lyrics of ‘Foggy Notion’ rather than any disapproval about glorifying drug-taking and other dubious activities – but in return he would provide the odd gem like a C-60 tape of the highlights of the Island Records compilation ‘Bumpers’, including marvellous nuggets of seriously great ‘stuff’ by the likes of Blodwyn Pig, Spooky Tooth, Mott the Hoople, Quintessence and If.  It was interesting when I picked up my own beautiful – and only slightly battered - copy a while back from a local charity shop to see what Uncle Dave had not deemed worthy of inclusion on the tape: basically a bit of Reggae and all the wimpy, folky stuff (John Martyn and Nick Drake included...)