Hey Mods and Senior Members!

[winters]

For the benefit of all the newbies here, maybe some of you would like to share your first or memorable times with CT. :woo:

[randomrob]

1985... my best friends dad had handbuilt a custom stereo with huge pine cabinets for blowing up the house w/opera and Wagner, etc... you could turn the volume to 10 and it would feel like the living room was about to split in half, but not a blessed lick of distortion...

my friend took out a copy of Aikea-Guinea and put on Kookaburra at full volume. My brain imploded

- been a fan ever since.

[Dpressed]

I heard Pearly-Dewdrops Drop on the radio (it was a minor hit in the UK) & bought the single. This lead onto Treasure (still my favourite CT album) ... & it's been downhill ever since.

One admission ... I never saw CT play live as I'm not a gig goer

One regret ... I didn't buy the box set when it came out in the early 90's. It was Lullabies to Violaine before I got to hear some of the tracks

[ludwig]

1984. A colleague recorded Treasure and thought that I might like it. I played the tape until you could hear the other side of the tape.

[randomrob]

This lead onto Treasure (still my favourite CT album) ... & it's been downhill ever since.

:(

[Dpressed]

I heard Pearly-Dewdrops Drop on the radio (it was a minor hit in the UK) & bought the single. This lead onto Treasure (still my favourite CT album) ... & it's been downhill ever since.

:(

It was supposed to be a joke rRob :lol: ... what I meant was that I was hooked

[randomrob]

oh well, :lol:, then

[pilgrimx]

One regret ... I didn't buy the box set when it came out in the early 90's. It was Lullabies to Violaine before I got to hear some of the tracks

You can find those box set (the american edition) easilly on ebay and sometimes at a cheap price,i bought two on ebay two years ago.But if you want the UK,Canadian or the japanese edition,those are hard to find and are expensive.

[petroldarling]

yes, i think i got my boxed set for about twenty-five dollars secondhand and i thought that was a fair price. obviously i was never able to buy it because i was just far too young!

[wAtChLaR]

rub it in now allison....rub it in ;)

:grandpa:

[petroldarling]

you know that was totally directed at you steve ;)

[wAtChLaR]

roflmao no i know it wasn't ;)

[andylama]

In 1984, I spent a LOT of my free time (and disposable income) in record shops that carried imports. I read a lot of UK music magazines. One day I picked up that fateful issue of NME with a 7" EP taped to the front. None of the 4 tracks sounded terribly exciting to me, but I figured I'd listen to all of them at least once.

When the needle hit Ivo, something in my brain just shot off like a rocket. I had never heard anything like it. It altered my brain chemistry. It was like getting addicted to crack! As soon as the track ended, I'd pick up the needle and start it over. I listened to that song consecutively, countless times. I wore it out!

I rushed right out and bought the Treasure LP (which contained the Aikea Guinea EP), and that became the most important album in my life for a while. I played it exclusively for weeks. I then acquired every CT release I could find, and would anxiously await any new releases. I knew when my favorite shops would get their import shipments, so I'd be ready to plow through the bins.

Halcyon days...that was when CT was putting out a lot of small releases in relatively rapid succession...Aikea...Dynamine...Shallow Bay...Orange Appled, etc. etc. The memory is euphoric to this day.

I passed that worn-out NME EP along to a friend, and another lifelong CT fan was born.

It's a legacy, really.

[the Flea]

Late 1983, my favourite band of the time had just split up (Bauhaus) and I was looking for a new sound to groove to. A friend of mine was always recording John Peel stuff so he lent me some tapes. One of the tapes was by a band called "Cocktoe Twins", it blew me away!!!
When Mama was Moth
Five Ten Fiftyfold
Sugar Hiccup
In Our Angelhood
Glass Candle Grenades.

Needless to say he never got the cassette back :lovect:

[dprid]

Heard them the first time John Peel played them on Radio 1, and it was one of only 3 occasions when music has stopped me dead in my tracks, the other two being The Undertones' Teenage Kicks & TMC's Song To The Siren.

[Fritter]

Kookaburra's response to a similar question on another thread was particularly memorable ;)

[postlibyan]

i saw the video for "Carolyn's Fingers" one night on MTV's 120 Minutes, in 1988, my freshman year in College. the next day i mentioned to my friend Sergio (a year ahead of me) that i had seen this cool video for Cocteau Twins. he had no idea they had a new record, so he begged everyone we knew to drive us to the Record Store. (neither of us had cars.) he bought the gatefold edition of BBK (something i am still searching for), and i picked up the Aikea-Guinea EP on vinyl, used for about $3.

then we went back to his dorm room and listened to BBK, back to front, several times.

later, as i mentioned the band to other people i knew in college, everybody had one or 2 CT records, but no one had them all. (Sergio had 6 or so). over the course of a few months i had managed to borrow and record onto cassette every CT release up to BBK. it took me years to find actual copies of them all...

i remember very cleary the first time i heard Victorialand. it was really late -- 3 or so in the morning, and i was studying for a test with Nick and Ouvmontius (sp) -- these 2 Greek guys whohad a class with me. after a while, bleary eyed, Nick decides we need to relax a bit and then have coffee. so he puts Victorialand on the record player, and i sat there, my brain numb, and just let it wash over me...

and then i had really strong Greek coffee and probably didn't sleep for days....

PJK

[andylama]

Kookaburra's response to a similar question on another thread was particularly memorable ;)

Could you link it? We're too lazy to search for it.

Then again, being Kook, I know roughly what to expect.

[angelhood]

Heard them the first time John Peel played them on Radio 1, and it was one of only 3 occasions when music has stopped me dead in my tracks, the other two being The Undertones' Teenage Kicks & TMC's Song To The Siren.

Re. stopping dead in tracks.Very similar to experience to myself dpid.

Bought Garlands on cassette-wondered what the inlay quote could possibly mean-went to college-celebrated the disappearance of acne with booze and girls (not many-I was saving myself!!!yeah)-listened /suffered to flat mates constant playing of "Brothers in Arms"-continued to buy CT stuff. Shamefully, never grew out of them.

Incidently from the Oberserver Music Monthly 50 Best Cover versions from last year.

And at number

6. This Mortal Coil, Song to the Siren (1983) (orig. Tim Buckley, 1970)

Tim Buckley's 1970 original is a fine exercise in ethereal folk-jazz, but barely hints at the emotional and textural fathoms of this 1983 reinvention.

The first release from the 4AD label's loose, alternative 'supergroup', 'Song to the Siren' was the work of Cocteau Twins Liz Fraser and Robin Guthrie and sounds like nothing else before or since.

Gospel music for the post-punk generation, it steals over the listener like a haunting. All voice and echo, with a hint of Arabic adhan in Fraser's astounding vocal, it tinkers subtly with the melody of the original while - astonishingly - making Tim Buckley's voice sound a trifle ordinary by comparison.

A record that retains every ounce of mystery and otherness no matter how many times it's played: it is impossible not to stop and listen, rooted to the spot, each time it steals into earshot.


I like the quote in bold.

[agcu418]

Listening to the charts on a Sunday night in the days before songs were released weeks in advance. Tape recorder at the ready because I taped every song - if I didn't like them I would rewind - Pearly Dew Drops came on and I was totally blown away.

As other posts have mentioned it was a totally euphoric experience and thinking of it now gives me goosebumps. I also remember the excitement of each new release when I would literally get the charrabang from the valleys and go into Cardiff to get it - I'd linger over the artwork and almost piss myself in anticipation until I got home. Once there I'd wait until it was dark and my parents had gone on the piss lie in front of the real coal fire after a bath and wait - I can remember Echoes in a Shallow Bay vividly and yes I did play Victorialand on the wrong speed for at least 5 spins and awkwardly convinved myself that Simon was singing and that I loved it !!!! :nod:

The funniest memeory I have is when my mum was going to Cardiff and I asked her to get me Tiny Dynamine as I was in school and couldn't go - I was so excited and rushed home - when i said did you get it she shouted at me " no they've never heard of the Cockatoo twins in WHSmiths

I cried so much :crying::crying::crying:

Reading other posts this is brining back so many good memories and reminds me why I love this fucking group and why I am so frustrated with the output of a certain lady

[fornasetti]

I've posted on this subject many times but basically it goes something like this ...

It was 1983, the post-Zeppelin era, I wasn't finding anything new and exciting.
I read an interview with Robert Plant who said he'd been listening to Cocteau Twins lately.
I borrowed "Head Over Heels" from the local library.
The first track I heard was "In The Gold Dust Rush". I was hooked straight away. It is still one of my favourite CT tracks.

[Ghosty]

I heard / saw the Pearly Dewdrops video in 84 and liked it. Then four years later saw a bit of the Carolyn's Fingers video and loved it. Decided to check one of their albums out at a record shop called Plato. Chose Treasure. My experience when the needle hit that groove and Ivo started playing was similar to Andy's. It was like a door opened in my mind and I was able to see a world that I had not been aware of before. I was hooked instantly. I bought Treasure and Tiny Dynamine and wore them out. Then started collecting all their output until then (BBK had just been released) and wore those out aswell.

[Nanite]

My Cocteau Story....
Well my parents have pretty good taste in music and have always instilled a strong music and theater appriciation in me since I can remember.
I was drawn mostly to the stronger sounds of Pink Floyd and adored The Beatles White album. I have specific memories of this Disney Halloween record (my parents prolly still have it) side two was scarry sounds of tourture and a haunted labratory. That was the only side I would listen to, I loved the chains etc. Thus my love for industrial was born and fortunately accepted by my parents. My older sister was more into stuff like The Cure (which soon was adapted by me) She was a drug addict runaway and I used to raid her music collection when she wasn't home. (often)
I stole/borrowed from her stash a single called "Loves Easy Tears" well 20 years later; My gosh has it been that long!?! Well I still have that tape and I used to play it over and over, hooked on CT ever since.
Favorite memories of that tape I'd play it laying on my bed meditating I had this string of white christmas lights strung along the ceiling that were so old they looked more off white and the glow of those lights alone against my wall which were painted such a dark purple it was nearly black.
That is my favorite memory of CT and everytime I hear L.E.T. I'm propelled back to that moment.
Never seen them in concert, never will and I'm okay with that.

[shoegazr]

don't think i'm a senior member, but here's mine...

i took an architecture class my freshman year of high school in 1990. i was into the cure, joy division, new order, pixies, pretty standard alternative high school fair. a senior in my class named corey always wore weird band shirts, like alien sex fiend, siouxsie, xymox. well, one day in the middle of class he asked if anyone had caught the episode of "twin peaks" the night before, and i was surprised that i was the only other person in the class that watched it. so we started having weekly discussions about each episode, and eventually he told me about julie cruise, i had mentioned how great i thought the music from the show was.

the following monday, when i greeted him in class he handed me a cassette tape. it was a dub of some band called cocteau twins, an album titled "the pink opaque". i had never heard of them, and he offered no information at all about the band. he said that since i was into dreamy music, i might dig it. when i got home, i put the tape on. when "the spangle maker" started, i was baffled. i couldn't tell what the hell she was singing. there was something both strangely creepy & beautiful about it. her voice was unlike anything else i had ever heard. by the end of side one i was dazed and just didn't know what to think. i flipped the tape over and when "aikea-guinea" faded in it suddenly all made sense. i was intrigued. but it wasn't until "lorelei" that i fell in love. it was the droney bit that starts at about 1min 56sec's in. it was like being in a trance. i rewound the tape as soon as the song ended, i had to listen to it again immediately. although it's by no means my favorite ct song, it's probably the one that has the most sentimental value to me. it still makes me feel the same kind of wonder, this mysterious other worldly music which is unlike anything else.

[Dpressed]

To stop me giving out rep points to all & sundry can I say many thanks to all the members who've shared their thoughts. This thread has some really moving (& to me absolutely excelent) posts ..... guess who's going to be listening to CT for the rest of the afternoon

[rufusmtvern]

It was 1986. I bought Pink Opaque because I thought the band name was cool. When I heard it I wanted everything they ever made previous to that (My favorites were Lorelei and Musette and Drums...the latter still being my favorite CT tune).

When I got Treasure, though. I couldn't stop listening to it!!!! I was listening to it on a fisher price tape recorder at a fireworks display on 4th of july with my family one year just so I could here it!!! That album galvanized my love for this incredible band.

This is a great thread!! I can see everyone playing them again and remembering vividly where and when they heard certain tunes. That's the beauty of music in general. It's not just the music and how it affects you, but the moment WHEN it affects you!