I only really got into TR because of his work with Cheap Trick and The Tubes - I suppose most people get into The Tubes because of TR but with me it was the other way around.

I remember the first time I heard OH. It was Christmas day 1986 and I'd bought myself 'Oops!' as a present (I had to pick my own gifts that year) based on the fact that TR's had produced The Tubes Love Bomb which at the time was my favourite album. I'm not sure why I picked Oops, it was one of a bunch of TR/UT albums in the rack at the local second hand record store and I guess something just caught my eye. Now remember I was 15 at the time and I hadn't even heard Love is The Answer, Hello it's Me, or I Saw The Light, at this point. First track was Trapped, of course, and at first I just scratched my head and wondered what this was all about. 4 plays and 3 hours later and Oops! was my favourite album. I remember Love in Action as sounding really weird to me, I played it to a friend who was also a musician and he just flipped - 'God that's a weird chord sequence in the chorus' - he was right but it was the first time that music had really made me feel different. Before this I liked quite easy listening stuff, nothing that took much thought to listen to. All I could hear was Cheap Tricks 'Heaven's Falling' - 'This is the same guy that wrote THAT?'. The album intrigued me with it's strange chord sequences, and beauty of it's lyrics.

I still wasn't hooked though. I LOVED 'Oops!' but really wasn't too sure what the rest of the albums were like, I mean I'd read that he was a bit eclectic so I wasn't sure which album to get next.

At that time the UK anthology LP was released and I bought it as an overview of TR's career - the same day as I bought Frank Zappa's 'Joes Garage' (my second FZ purchase) - and spent the whole evening listening to Zappa. I played TR once, and it did nothing for me.

I decided Utopia were good and TR was a bit lame.

My next set of purchases were 'Oblivion' and 'Deface the Music'. Now, this was before the heady days of internet mailing lists and web sites - I knew NO other TR fans so these albums were just titles, I had no idea what they'd be like.

I got home, put on Oblivion and loved it. Little did I know at the time it was the Germany silver cover issue, I just thought they all looked like that. I thought it was a great album so I put on 'Deface' - WHAT??

Being a big Beatles fan at the time (and still so) I found 'Deface' really charming. Of course as the first strains of 'I just want to touch you' came through the speakers I thought it was a misspressing - 'This isn't Utopia!' - I also had the "luck" of getting Deface in a blank sleeve as the second hand store had lost it's real cover, this further confused matters - if I'd seen the beatlesque cover I might have realised what was going on. At some point after this I actually got into TR - I think this was due to running out of Utopia LP's to buy so I HAD to buy TR albums. My first TR album after 'Anthology' was a vinyl copy of 'A Cappella'. It took a while but in the end it all came into place.

I still knew nothing about this TR bloke but (luck or fate?) I met a tutor at my college who was a huge TR fan and he made copies of a bunch of videos of OH and also got me subscribed to the Nexus. From then on it's all gone from 'bad' to 'worse'. And now, my feelings about TR and his music...

The reason I love TR's music is simply that TR says things about my life that no-one else dares say. Not because he knows me, but because he's honest enough in his music to say things about humans that most artists don't want to say - through fear of sounding weak. TR has written songs that express feelings that I can identify with so personally, he isn't scared of admitting his/our weakness.

Do I really think Todd is Godd? Nah. And I'm glad he's not, it's his 'humaness' that makes his music so special to me. He writes songs to document my whole spectrum of emotions and also lyrics that catalogue events we've all experienced. TR is the only songwriter I know of in the 'pop' genre that actually has no hidden agenda to his work - he's not trying to be famous, he's not trying to make a ton of money, he's being true to himself and foregoing all the glitz of pop success that was offered to him in 1972 for a chance to really make a difference. He's true to himself, to his art, and because of this he's true to us - we all WANT him to do exactly what HE wants and he doesn't disapoint. We expect the unexpected, we just want his albums to be Todd and they always are, he never tries to be someone else.

TR is also an artist that appreciates us, his fans, for our support - I think most of us feel close to him as a person because of the help he's given us through his music, but on top of this Todd is only human. We feel as if we (ie, me, you, and him) are in this together, we are experiencing life together - with Todd documenting the events and feelings we experience on our way. I'm not in awe of TR, I'm sure he wouldn't want me to be, he makes mistakes and that's good because so do we.

I'm sure I'd blush if I said I loved him but as I'm typing this you wouldn't see - I do love him, you can't help loving someone who's music has pulled you out of as many holes as his has.

I realise that there is so much more I want to say here but I'm not sure what it is, I think I could go on like this forever. Oh yeh, the last thing I like about TR's music is... it's a trip, it's got a funky beat, and I can 'bug out' to it!

DL