I had lunch in the pub today with my mate and colleague, Andy. While we were there, another colleague came in and started raving about seeing Dr Feelgood last night and how he was going to see 9 Below Zero tonight. Ah the memories flooded in. I've seen both bands countless times, in my younger days, I went to an average of four gigs a week and saw just about everyone who was anyone play in the late 70's, early 80's. It's getting harder and harder to persuade David to go to gigs these days, mainly because it means travelling into London, an experience we'd probably both rather not have but I think it's worth it for what's at the end whereas he doesn't!

I've already confessed to being a huge music lover and music buyer. On the way home, by pure coincidence I heard a small snippet on the radio about the rapid decline in sales of CDs - apparently to get to No 1 these days you barely need to sell to anyone outside your own family! The levels of sales are a small fraction of what they were a decade ago.

Record companies bleat on about Napster and other forms of copying but I blame the companies themselves. In the early 80s they were so po-faced about music that they started to tighten up on what was allowed in terms of promotion. Gradually all forms of 'freebie' were wiped from the slate and singles were only allowed to enter the charts if they were a simple 7" single with no more than so many minutes of music. What a stupid mistake! Didn't the record companies realise that it was exactly that kind of promotion that made folks like me dash down to the record store on a Monday morning to buy the latest release by The Psychedelic Furs, whose new single had a t-shirt attached, or the latest picture disk from Roman Holliday or whatever. It wasn't exploitation of youth - it gave me a record collection that I'm proud of, that gives me a thrill every time I pull out some long forgotten treasure, that DEFINES me as I've said before.

What have the kids of today got? What boils down to a binary file on their PC with nothing to bring an emotional bond to the listener - surely that's what good marketing is all about - making people have an emotional attachment to the things they buy.

So, the red Fine Young Cannibals tin reminds me of the gorgeous Roland Gift, his wonderful sing-song voice and the amazingly bendy-legged Cox and Steele all playing live at the Forum. The green 9 Below Zero album reminds me of taking a day off work to travel to Central London to see them perform in the Virgin Megastore at lunchtime - it was jammed with enthusiastic fans - brilliant! Bruce Springsteen in 1979 at Wembley Arena - the ticket £6 - standing on the seat thinking 'this man has really got it', this pic disk was, I think, one of the most sought after limited editions ever! Dr Feelgood - one of the best live bands I've seen, so much energy. The Depeche Mode single? Well, I saw thenm play at The Bridgehouse in Canning Town BEFORE Dreaming of Me became a huge hit. I've loved them ever since - moreso since Vince Clark left and the darker, more sensual music of Martin Gore drove the band into a different place altogether.

And, peeping out from the corner, The Expressos - Tango In Mono - this was the beginning of the end for 'chart hyping' in the UK - the record reputedly only sold 6 copies the week it charted at no 63 (or thereabouts) - shock horror - off with their heads. Actually, it was a fab pop song and I'm sure would have charted of its own accord when it got some airplay. They were a good band....two of them joined another great band, The Escape Club, who went on to have a no 1 single in the USA called 'Wild, Wild West' - another fab song.

Now you see I just don't see what the problem with giving me all this pleasure is? I actually think kids today might be inclined to go out and buy music again with a few whacky freebies or some interesting packaging. How about that? Could I have solved the industry's problems in one go? Maybe - isn't it worth a try?