How did you first find out about your favourite band(s) ?

[Drealm]

• How old were you when you first found them?
  
  Around 19. Today I'm 31.
  

• What were the circumstances in which you found hem?
  
• Are there any special people connected with the find ?
  
• What attracted you to the band?
  
  (the following text is my "official text" describing how I discovered Mike Oldfield. I copy/paste it to answer your 3 first questions)
  
  I really like the way I was introduced to Mike Oldfield.
  
  I was around 18 when my parents decided to send me work to the farm of my uncle for several months. I was very far from home so I had to stay there.
  
  There was a guy older than me working there. We ended up in a tractor with a cabin which included a radio cassette. He then decided to put music, choosing from a box full of cassettes. The music intrigued me. I don't know why. I was not very open musically at the time, but somehow the music grabbed my attention. I asked him what was playing, and he answered "This is music for smoking!" (he was referring to marijuana). So I discovered Ommadawn part two was playing.
  
  He lend me the cassette and I gave it more listen at home. I remember listening to part one and wondering why this music was attracting me. This was a totally new kind of music for me.
  
  Later, I looked in his box to search for more Mike, and I found Crises. I remember that when I stumbled upon Moonlight Shadow and the others singed songs, I was disappointed because at the time I was totally anti-commercial and looking only for instrumental, so I was thinking "another one who is not doing just instrumental". This gave me the impression that Mike could never be an artist I could enjoy very much. Imagine how wrong I was!
  
  The older guy also told me that there was an album he liked so much from Mike that he simply listened too much and the cassette ended up broking. He told me the album was Tubular Bells. So from this event, he never listened to it again. (I remember thinking: but why didn't he bought it again?)
  
  The farm where I worked was very far from big cities, so the little music store in town did not have a lot of choice. I remember seeing only Voyager, but at the time I did not liked Mike at the point of buying albums I didn't know.
  
  But when I finished my work at the farm, on my travel back to my parent's house, I got to a big city and searched to buy CD of Ommadawn and the so beloved Tubular Bells that I heard about.
  
  Of course I easily found them. I remember when I first heard Tubular Bells, I did not liked it that much. I was wondering what the older guy liked so much about it. But with the time, it grew on me and...that's how Mike began his way into my life!
  
  The next albums I bought were at a used record store. The prices were low so I took all albums I found from Mike: There was Incantation, Tubular Bells 2 and The Songs of Distant Earth.
  
  After that, I don't remember the order I discovered the other albums. I just know that Mike became my best composer and changed my life!
  
  Still, I wonder...what if he decided to put another cassette in the tractor? I don't remember any other event after this one that could have potentially introduced me to Mike Oldfield. Is it possible that I could have missed Mike's music all my life? Just this idea is giving me goosebumps.
  
  
  
• How has your admiration for the band developed over the years ?
  
  More and more. The artist I admire the most on earth, of all art types. I think it's basically it's musical philosophy that made that possible. The way it's imagination is unveiling in his music have always matched mine; this one thing is hard to describe with words. I've seen many fans on internet who were not liking every album, even disliking some. It was strange for me the first time, because for me it was natural that I loved them all, even non-albums songs, like you find along on a single.
  

• What is the story of your exploration of their catalogue: Did you queue to get the releases on their day of issue/
  
  I discovered him later in his career so most of his albums were already out; I just bought all his albums blindly without listening to them before. And for later albums, I never got in a queue, probably because here in north America, especially where I live, almost nobody knows him so it was always easy to get the last album!
  

• Have you sen them live ? If so how often and what were your impressions?
  
  no, apart from a DVD.
  

• Are there any other anecdotes you can share about them.
  
  One day I put Tubular Bells in a party and one girl just went crazy: "you have it!!!! What is it??? I've been searching for this music from the "exorcist" movie for years!!! Thanks!!" (take note that internet was not in our lives at the time so she couldn't just go on wiki to know it...)
  

• How do you feel about them today , have you attitudes changed ?
  
  Of course, the time pass, and after listening so many times to each albums, the intensity of my listening became less frequent as new music came gradually into my life. But still, no artist ever took his #1 place in my heart. The best is that he still do music, he's only 57 after all, and I still totally enjoy it. For example, his next to last album grew on me becoming one of my best. He never did an album I never liked. I really wonder how I'll feel the day of his death...