Obviously not alone in the Duran thing then....

So I have a Duran Duran weekend and to end it on this Bank Holiday Monday BBC Radio 6 are having a new romantic documentary.

I have to admit, it's not just Duran Duran that I love, it's most good new romantic stuff. Although I do have favourites particularly Duran Duran & The Human League (up to and including Dare) & most of my love of New Romantic stuff and New Wave is all tied up with a love of that early synth and electronica sound.

Strangely I actually owe a lot to Dudley public library. They had a good record lending library & even more importantly for me with no access to my own record player, but having a double tape player (bought to copy cassettes for my ZX Spectrum) the record library had a good cassette selection.

I have to publicly thank the record & tape buyer who made sure the library was well stocked with Kraftwerk and Cabaret Voltaire. Two bands who have always been in my favourites.

So through the record library I got into all these great bands, New Romantic and many others. Of course, I was between 13 & 18 when i was using the library - that's 1984-1989 & of course, one effect of using the record library for a lot of my music meant I was quite behind on some of my musical choices. But they were very important for introducing me to the wonders of Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, The Cure, The The, The Damned, The Fall, Half Man Half Biscuit, The Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie & The Banshees and many, many, many more.