Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,652 Uriah Heep - Demons & Wizards

When I graduated in 1990 I started my teaching career in Komarno, a small border town on the Danube. Between Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The town had previously been a Hungarian one. But it had been divided into two by the Treaty of Triannon following the First World War when the former Austro Hungarian empire was sliced into slightly arbitrary new lines on a map and in actuality, 

Territories of people that never particularly liked each other, and still probably don't were thrown together in the new Czechoslovakia. I arrived in September 1990 with little idea of how to teach but a whole set of classes to try to do my best with. Czechoslovakia as it turned out had not got long to go.

There were some great students and great teachers at the Hungarian Gymnasium. I met some wonderful people and was made to feel very welcome. It wasn't a very exciting place at the time and I was something of a celebrity. Somebody told me my name was sprayed on a wall. Like I said, there wasn't much to do. It was an incredible experience. I'm very grateful for it and would love to go back. 

I remember Laszlo and Endre particularly. Teachers at The Hungarian Gymnasium. You can see me here at the front doors with the favourite class I taught that year. Endre was particularly proud of his record collection. Mostly Early Seventies Hard Rock. Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep. Deep Purple. That kind of thing. It was the music that seemed most highly rated in Komarno among the people that I mixed with during my year there. I went to see The Scorpions and Deep Purple play in Budapest during my year there. They were both great. 

It wasn't the kind of stuff I really went for. Then or now. I'm struggling as I speak to get through Demons & Wizards Uriah Heep's best known album. The lead singer David Byron seems to be fighting a losing battle with the tightness of his trousers. The others are racing through long keyboard and guitar and bass duals with wild abandon.  I'm sorry. I try to be open minded but I'm finding listening to this a slightly traumatic experience and it's a work day tomorrow.Time for a paracetamol and a lie down on my sofa I suspect.

But it does make me think about Laszlo and Endre and wonder how they're doing. They valued their record collections so much because they were so hard won. Records from the West weren't easy to get. They were such nice guys. Coming from the West I probably take ownership of the records I have for granted. They didn't seem to