Welcome back to 10 Records in 10 Days. A Facebook chain-turned 10 day blog series. The concept is simple. ”Post an album a day covering your 10 all time favourite albums. What really made an impact and is still on your rotation list, even if only now and then? Post the cover, no need to explain, and nominate a person each day to do the same”.
We’ve been nominated but rather than post without explanation, we thought it would be more fun to provide a little context. That is just the first of the rules we plan to break in this series. We are also not nominating anyone else (if you want to join in, you are more than welcome to do so) and we are also not adhering to any of the other implied rules either.
For the purpose of this series, we’ll be posting in the first person.
Day six sees a return to the theme of musical awakenings and my first exposure to the artist who would become my all time favourite.
Prince and the New Power Generation – Diamonds and Pearls
Like most kids in the late 80’s and early 90’s, a lot of my music came from the charts on Sunday night. Listening to and taping the tracks to play back again and again. This meant that, in all honesty, a lot of the music I listened to was not great. I was exposed to a lot of Stock Aitken and Waterman produced cheesy pop as well as songs that got a lot of exposure via the massive hit movies of the day.
So, when I headed on up to secondary school and heard Bowie properly for the first time, my mind was expanded and like a sponge, I started to suck in and absorb everything and anything I could. This lead to me listening to the likes of Belly and Sugar but also anything else my friends were enjoying. This was a period when most kids in my year had access to a walkman and most kids had headphones that could be shared. This meant lots of secret listening in class and at lunchtime and a lot of sharing of tapes.
While most of my friends at the time were experimenting with rock (Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row, Iron Maiden etc) or dance and rave (Prodigy etc), one kid leant me a tape of something entirely different.
Prince was an artist I was aware of, but never really heard before. I missed the highs of Purple Rain and Sign ‘o’ the Times so never really knew what the fuss was about. Diamonds and Pearls would change all that forever.
While to many it marked the beginning of a downward spiral, Diamonds and Pearls was a highpoint in my pop music listening. It was so damn funky, so engaging and, frankly, so enlightening. This heady mix of musical styles, religion and sex was quite the revelation to this early teen at his all boys school.
As I was veering away from pop music, Diamonds and Pearls brought me back in and showed me it could be something so much more. There was funk, there was dance, there was jazz and there was hip hop, all present and to the fore, yet this was still undeniably a pop record. It was music I was familiar with and loved, yet unlike anything I had heard before. Who was this guy and how was he able to make such music, and how on earth was he able to sing the way he did?
I had to know more and set about buying more Prince records over the coming years, learning more about him and falling more and more in love with him. One of the first things I ever looked up online when I went to university (in a computer room, with a fellow student showing me what the internet was and how it worked) was Prince.
Diamonds and Pearls is not the best Prince album, it is not really even my favourite, but it is one of them and it is the one that I have the biggest personal connection with. It had such an impact on me that without it, such a massive part of my musical world would not exist. From the tiny acorn of sneaking a listen at the back of a Chemistry lesson, a massive oak tree of fandom and appreciation grew. It was Diamonds and Pearls that made me fall for Prince, and lead to him being (hands down, with only Bowie close) my absolute favourite artist of all time.
Alphabet Bands 
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