I think this is the LP that's been in my collection longest. I didn't start collecting records until I was given a record player for my 14th birthday (it was all cassettes until then). Most of those first records were sold on with a year or two, as my tastes changed, to raise cash to buy new records, but this one survived (possibly because it wouldn't have raised much?). I bought it second hand myself, from Giles Croft at school. (I've just googled him to see if he's famous now, but he's not the same Giles Croft who's become a theatre director.) That would have been in autumn 1979, when the charts were full of Walking on the Moon, Cars, Making Plans for Nigel, Eton Rifles and Video Killed the Radio Star. At around that time I owned Regatta de Blanc, The Pleasure Principle and Setting Sons, but they all got sold; XTC and The Buggles were later purchases.
Because the cover of this LP was already slightly worn when I got it, and because it's never been a favourite, I used to use it as a buffer at the front of my record carrying case. The record at the front was most likely to get damaged in transit, so it was important that it should be an 'expendable' one. Everything has its purpose in God's greater plan.
You might imagine that I haven't played this in decades, but you'd be wrong. I'm sure I gave it a spin just a year or so ago, late at night on headphones. Though it's never been a favourite, I've always quite liked it. I am one of those terribly perverse snobs who avoid almost anything by Pink Floyd after Meddle, and, along with Animals which was recorded around the same time as David Gilmour, this is as close as I want to get to that era. It has a modesty of intent that I miss from all those Big Statement albums.
Have I kept up with Gilmour's most recent solo album
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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