Lucky Rat

My story and first encounter with the sound that would become part of my DNA began sometime in 1978. My father used to run a cafe in downtown London. In those days, juke boxes were very popular, so at a very young age I would get to hear lots of different music. We (The family) lived upstairs in a cramped space but it was all I knew and was ok...at least until I turned 10. Anyhow, we had one of those old gramaphone players which looked like a cupboard but had a turntable in the middle. Some of the old records from the jukebox downstairs would end up upstairs. Some of my earliest memories was playing 70's Elvis singles. I remember playing the same ones again and again. I remember David Essex was popular. I remember Lulu singing a David Bowie song. I remember seasons in the sun and Mony Mony. I remember Mario Lanza singles my dad had and the black RCA label, I think. I remember when school holidays used to last forever and long hot summers kicking a football against the wall a thousand times. Anyway, to get to the point; One day I recall standing by the entrance to my dad's cafe and this time, I don't know if it was the jukebox or the radio but I heard for the first time, She's So Modern. It was like a thousand electrical volts charging through my body. It's like everything changed in a moment. It was like a rebirth. As though nothing existed before. I had to find out more and I did. It was my first experience of the Rats. I must have made a noise and let it be known, as when my birthday came, I was to receive my first Boomtown Rats record from my brothers who jointly bought me Like Clockwork. The Boomtown Rats were my first favourite band. To this day they remain so. tbc?...