Christmas 1971, Ernie was riding high in the charts on his milk cart, and I got a secondhand portable Philips reel to reel from Santa.

I used it to record "Top OF The Pops" by hanging the microphone over the back of a chair in front of the telly. The resultant recordings were littered with extra sounds, like doors opening and closing, my mums's voice shouting "Don't answer the door, it's the rent man", "who's ate all the lard?" and "do you have to do that in here?"

Songs like Chicory Tip's "Son of My Father" with added budgie chirps became the norm, and sounded bare without them.

I would love to still have those recordings, more for the sound of my parents' and Arthur's voices superimposed on Middle Of The Road's "Soley Soley". Arthur was the budgie.