Omar Lye-Fook: That's What I Call....

One of the first albums I ever bought, this masterpiece was made with the genius musicianship and wordsmithery to move the teenage boy in me. The fact that a three-piece band could create this fantastic sonic piece in studio and live always amazes me. ‘Message in a bottle’, ‘Walking on the Moon’, and ‘On any Other Day’ are the stand-out tracks.

It must have been when I was about 12 or 13 that my cousin Brian Henry played this album to me, and it changed my life. Mark King practically taught me how to play the bass even when I couldn’t afford one. I used to go to a music shop in Canterbury to practice on the display basses and it would be playing tunes like ‘Sandstorm’, ‘Theme to Margaret’ and ‘Mr Pink’, all of which would sharpen my musical instincts.

By 1964, the British invasion was real. The Fab Four released a movie, and everyone I knew went to see it. It was discussed in every classroom in my school. My brother and I had already started writing songs by this time. No more covers. Our earliest creations sound very Beatles-eque. The opening chord of the eponymous title song fascinated us. What was it? We loved it because it dared to challenge us.

My primary-school teacher Mr Duncan not only had time to teach us History, French, English, Maths, Picasso, make Easter Island statues, and models of the Cutty Sark, he also gave us guitar lessons at lunchtimes and taught us songs by The Beatles including ‘Michelle’, ‘Norwegian Wood’ and ‘Drive My Car’. My favourite teacher.

Quite simply, without this album there wouldn’t be ‘Golden Brown’, my absolute favourite Stranglers song. I wouldn’t have been able to cover it, and lead singer, Hugh Cornwall, wouldn’t have told me it was his favourite cover of the song.