Esther Chilton

One of my favourite music artists has always been Bryan Adams. I first fell in love with his songs when I heard Run to You, released in 1984, from the album, Reckless, when I was the tender age of 12. I saved my pocket money for the single, but it wasn’t long before that wasn’t enough and I wanted the album. Though, it seemed to take me an age to save enough money for it, even though I promised Mum I’d do all the family’s ironing forever in return for cash.

I soon discovered there had been three albums before Reckless and over the next few years, my love affair/obsession with Bryan Adams‘ records took over, with me vowing to track down and purchase all three albums. But it actually proved much harder than I thought it would be due to the fact that a) I lived in Newbury and they didn’t sell any Bryan Adams‘ albums in any of the 50 (a slight exaggeration, but there were a lot of record shops there at the time) shops which sold records in the town (not even in good old Woolworths) and b) even if I did the whole street’s ironing, it would have taken me an age to save up for them.   

So the elusive albums didn’t appear in my record collection until I was 16 and a) able to travel on the bus to Basingstoke (which is actually only 20 minutes away, but takes about 5 hours on the bus due to the scenic route the driver is obliged to take) with my friends where they did sell all three Bryan Adams‘ albums and b) had enough money for them, thanks to a Saturday job in Halfords (if you work in Halfords, think yourself lucky with your current uniform. Back in the 80s, the uniform consisted of breeze block grey overalls, which were at least 10 times too big. And of course, I was sporting my ever attractive perm to complete the look). 

I still have all the albums in my record collection and Run to You is still one of my all-time favourite songs.