Now we're rolling! I now see what all the fuss is about when people buy an old car and strip it down and rebuild it again. This old Amstrad was in really good condition when it arrived, but I still felt the need to take it apart and give it an MOT. Door off, wheels off, lid off, turntable off, stylus in the trash. WD40 everywhere. Tape head's attacked with cotton buds - the list is probably longer but the rest isn't very interesting. So this morning, the new stylus arrived. Just the one for now, but it is the right one so I'll likely order more. If anybody else is in the stylus market, the guys at Get The Needle have just about everything you could want, and it came as fast as you like too.

All I'm missing now is some vinyl and hopefully the copy of The Waterboys' This Is The Sea will be here in the morning. (Not quite The Waterboys album I had in mind to kick start the show with, but a fantastic work of art all the same. The album got a little overshadowed by the success of Whole of the Moon, but there are far, far better songs than that on board. In fact, in the list of perfect albums, it probably sits just behind Sign of the Times).

All that remains then is to figure out if the deck needs any kind of turntable mat and we'll be spitting thunder.

A few have wondered why I didn't buy a decent/new record deck, but that would hardly recreate the experience of the first tentative steps into what it's like to fall in love again. It's not a midlife crisis... I've had that already. I just wanted to see if music and me could still get along like we used to. I have to say, it doesn't look as totally out of place as I thought it might in the corner either... kind of like it's always been there.

Which was the point.

It was nearly a great end to the day when one of Universal's outsourced PR companies sent out a press release offering review opportunities for the celebratory T.Rex vinyl box set that's coming in April. I jumped on them - only to find that I would have to review said special release vinyl box set by - get this - downloading the tracks.

Sorry? I thought I had misheard, but apparently not. So er... you can have your review by imagining what it might look like if you wish guys. See how you like not finding the end product quite as you thought.

If on the other hand, you might see your way to shipping out the product to a (we can all agree on this) deserving reviewer who knows what he's talking about when it comes to Bolan, who has been in the T.Rex corner longer than the PR guy who tried to pimp it to me has been on the planet, I'll be only too pleased to run a review online and on paper to over 100,000 readers in my mag.

Marc would have punched you in the mouth.

Do you really wonder why the music industry is screwed and none of you will have any jobs in five years?

I tracked down the exact same Amstrad TS-30 tower system that I used to have when I was a kid in school - though obviously not the exact same one. I guess it could have once been mine but that would go beyond freaking weird. I had to sell mine one day when I needed to make the rent. I worked my ass off for this washing cars and floors at my Dad's garage and then in an auto-spares store on a Saturday.

This one I picked up at a great price on ebay this morning, but the original, I bought from Boots back when they used to have kick-ass electrical departments. I think we're talking about 1982 here. Maybe 1983.

I went straight there after work (I think my boss Alan might have let me off a little bit early I was so excited), handed over my cash and because nobody was around to give me a lift back with it, I carried the beast home, which was maybe a mile or so...

I was so excited when I got it into my bedroom... only to find that they hadn't given me the speakers to go with it. I'm not sure I could really have carried anymore than the tower itself, but it was disappointing all the same as back in the eighties the only shops open on a Sunday were newsagents and garden centres. Thus, it was a long old wait until the Monday to hook it all up.

My record collection was pretty extensive by the time this made it into my life, so the little storage space (lovingly illustrated here by a copy of ABBA: The Album I do believe) would have gotten full pretty quick, though it will probably suit my needs right now down to the ground. The rest of my discs were stored in big heavy album cases. I had dozens of them. I think you could get about 50 albums in each one - and a few years later, they were also a pretty handy place to hide 'magazines' and cigarettes.

Anyway, it was great fun and I'm hoping to recreate at least some of the experience - I've even found a guy that sells belts and styluses online (does 'stylus' have a plural?), of which I might buy a few. Then... we begin the collection...

Damn thing had better work.