Wishbone Ash, Mountain, Groundhogs, and Rick Wakeman are all still regular plays chez Stimpy.

I was never a big Heep fan

There's nothing at all wrong with Groundhogs. I still love most of the albums that I loved when I was 18, which was 34 years ago. I'm not embarrassed by any of my collection, having had impeccable taste from the start!

and Simple Minds (New Gold Dream and Sparkle in The Rain). However I have offloaded over the years... Duran Duran's debut, Yazoo, Dare and best of all Pelican West by Haircut 100.

When the punk wars started (or more likely, were already well under way), many innocent records of mine were sent to an internment camp. But when it all had blown over (though things would be forever different), music by ELO, Yes and even Pilot and Sweet were allowed back into the fold.

But Rush..? I have no idea what posessed me, and I had at least 4 LPs and used to scrawl their logo all over. Still, at least I got the Geddy Lee line in Pavement's "Stereo".

Others that continue to be banished include Dark Side Of The Moon (nowadays it just sounds dull) and in fact most other post-Syd Floyd.

Oh, and now I think, there was Foreigner too.

The first LP I ever bought was "Break the Cycle" by Stain'd.

Sheesh, that's bad.

If I'd just held back a week, it would have been White Blood Cells. Damnit to hell!

Quite quite horrendous on every level but I kept it for over a year....

and my intolerant views on many are well -rehearsed. But I recently downloaded Salisbury, the title track, and Easy Living from the aforenamed Uriah Heep Lp "for old times sake", having briefly owned it last century. Of course it's crap, but it is quite good crap, compared to the putrescence of thr rest of their repertoire.

Used to have 'Look At Yourself' (with the mirror on the cover - look what happens when you twist it - far out man!) in my early teens and, of course, it was a casualty of the Punk Wars and long since forgotten.

However wandering around Fopp a while back there was a Heep Box with seven (count 'em!) albums included. Think it was a fiver but might even have been three quid.

Of course I bought it.

Complete and utter tosh - but mildly entertaining tosh at that.

Love the sleeve notes to the 'Live 1973' set, which are so of their time...

"David [Byron, lead singer] is the focus. The peacockish dresser who struts his stuff for the girls but who guzzles a bottle or two of Mateus Rose[!] and shakes the mike-stand hard, coming on heavy to let the lads know he's no effete poseur."

What's not to love?

and it has its moments but it doesnt grab me like I remembered it. I also have a yearning to get City Boy on cd - one of their songs comes into my head from time to time with the chorus ' I first got my chance at the Oddball dance...." Its probably complete bollocks.
Also note the new deluxe edition of Camels The Snowgoose - loved it t the time but is it good enough to invest in again? Probably not.

The worst offenders I can think of are Gravy Train.

Got them all because they were the only band ever to come out of my town and wrote a song with a title of the place I live.

The albums are pure self indulgent tosh.

A couple of Dutch gents called MC Miker and DJ Sven DJs did a version of Madonna's Holiday called "Holiday Rap". Drunk after closing time in Cinderella Rockerfellas, I thought it was brilliant. The momentum propelled into HMV early the next day to buy it. I played it just the once.

Gary Numan made some records with Shakatak. Yes, I bought them based on misguided loyalty (to Numan, not Shakatak). And why oh why did I buy Captain Sensible's Happy Talk for my dad on Fathers Day? I didn't even like it myself! I would like to say his face was a picture but he just frowned a little bit and handed it back.

Like some others here, I am open to revisiting things that should be embarassing because, dammit, it's good music so why not? However, I can't bring myself to play Howard Jones again.

I'll come along and sharpen up my mime skills.

Re: Holiday Rap. In the mid 80's there was a raft of double albums that mixed 20 songs or so a side. I pulled them from vinyl and ripped to mp3 for the ipod.

Amongst one of the eighties mixes was Holiday Rap - was it a rink dink a dink for a holiday? They were definitely bringing along a piece of Amsterdam.

However with every Holiday Rap and Tarzan Boy, there were some pleasant surprises - Flash In The Pan, Blow Monkeys, Sly Fox, even Duran's Wild Boys.

Listening to a 20 min mix of 20 songs can be ok on the drive into work. If you don't like one, it's only gonna last a minute and you may like the next.

There's a particularly good 70's one, called Rare Groove Mix. That has a Glam Mix, Rock Mix and a couple of disco mixes. Disco one has the obvious Rock The Boat etc.

..I'll take those Mountain, Groundhogs and Wishbone Ash albums off your hands.
Consider me a humanitarian.

the thing with embarassing records is like 'chintz' they'll always come around again!

Frank & Walters early EP's - fondly played at the time - quickly dispatched to the bottom of the shelf during the cool Britannia era as a novelty band
Resurrected years later by a colleague left unimpressed by What's going on, Innervisions, yada yada - but smitten by Fashion Crisis hits New York

Recently purchased greatest hits - and sought out vinyl debut LP...and very happy they weren't dispatched to the dumper (as per Altered Images first LP)