I had left school in the summer of 1983, a year early and to the disappointment of many, not going onto university. Instead, I became a “Computer Room Operator” for a replacement door and window manufacturer in Cheltenham, earning the princely sum of 25-pounds a week on the Youth Training Scheme.

I was still living with my parents (apart from a brief period of roughing it in an old farm-house) and 25-pounds seemed like a fortune. I was absorbing new music like a sponge and could have spent nearly all of my income on records and beer each week. And I did.