Crime Of The Century by Supertramp

Soon after 'discovering' the delights of Dark Side Of The Moon, I went to a party at Liz from school's house in Southgate. All the people there, despite being the same age as me, seemed so much more cool than me. So much more mature. I'm sure it was something to do with the sort of music they were into.

I hadn't had much exposure to anything other than what was on Radio 1 at the time. So when this girl put Crime Of The Century on the turntable and invited me to put on her headphones, I felt like I was entering a whole new world.

I gazed in awe at the LP sleeve. I had already heard the single, Dreamer, on the radio, and to be honest I didn't really like it all that much.

Not wanting to appear 'square', despite being exactly that, I put on the cans and turned up the volume.

The first track, School, set the scene with its introductory playground sounds, followed by Bloody Well Right, another instantly catchy song. The longer tracks like Hide In Your Shell and Rudy (with crowd scenes recorded at Paddington Station and Leicester Square). The writers, Roger Hodgson and Rick Davis were certainly in top creativity mode for this record.

I believe Jeremy Clarkson recently announced this as being his favourite album of all time. And there I was, thinking he was a complete...