Popular Post Sandor 797 Posted August 28, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted August 28, 2022 In a couple of months, I'll be celebrating my '30th anniversary' of being a John Williams fan and collector. Growing up with films like Star Wars, Indiana Jones and E.T., I've been intrigued by Williams' music since childhood, but it was during the Spring of 1993 that I became a true and devoted fan. My life was very different 30 years ago. I was still living with my parents, attended the final year of high school, had hair on my head and I had no idea how my life was going to turn out. I look back on 30 years filled with significant events, ranging from wonderful to not so great. I became a teacher and headmaster, got married to a beautiful wife, bought a house, lost my stepfather and grandparents, traveled the world, became father to an autistic son and successfully overcame an episode of depression. The music of John Williams has been an integral part of my personal journey and has always had a positive effect on me. Today I had some photos taken of my entire collection, something I've been wanting to do for years. I hope you will enjoy them and here's to the next 30 years! Holko, Miguel Andrade, aj_vader and 30 others 14 1 17 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jay 37,373 Posted August 28, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted August 28, 2022 Oh wow, that's cool! My first soundtrack purchase was the 1993 Star Wars box set, which I got in 1994, so I guess my 30th anniversary is two years away! Sandor, Falstaft and aj_vader 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandor 797 Posted August 28, 2022 Author Share Posted August 28, 2022 5 minutes ago, Jay said: Oh wow, that's cool! My first soundtrack purchase was the 1993 Star Wars box set, which I got in 1994, so I guess my 30th anniversary is two years away! My first soundtrack was the Polydor release of Star Wars followed by Return of the Jedi. It was the Gerhardt re-recording of The Empire Strikes Back however that turned me into a fan. It is -until this day- one of my favorite albums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,373 Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 I think most of my first handful of soundtrack purchases were all Star Wars and Indiana Jones related - the OSTS to SW, TESB, and ROTJ, the OSTS to Raiders, Doom, and Crusade, the Gerhardt TESB and ROTJ, the Varujan Kojian Star Wars trilogy.... I'd guess something Star Wars related was many people's first foray into enjoying scores on their own outside the films! The Lost Folio 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandor 797 Posted August 28, 2022 Author Share Posted August 28, 2022 7 minutes ago, Jay said: I think most of my first handful of soundtrack purchases were all Star Wars and Indiana Jones related - the OSTS to SW, TESB, and ROTJ, the OSTS to Raiders, Doom, and Crusade, the Gerhardt TESB and ROTJ, the Varujan Kojian Star Wars trilogy.... I'd guess something Star Wars related was many people's first foray into enjoying scores on their own outside the films! True! I was collecting the soundtracks as a Star Wars fan and listening to the music as a stand-alone experience made me fall in love with the work and artistry of John Williams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post lairdo 726 Posted August 28, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted August 28, 2022 48 minutes ago, Sandor said: In a couple of months, I'll be celebrating my '30th anniversary' of being a John Williams fan and collector. Thanks, @Sandor, for kicking off the thread. And congrats on 30 years! Your collection looks amazing. For sure my family had Fiddler on the Roof - cannot remember if that was ours or my grandparents' - but we had it and I played it. Of course, my awareness of John Williams was zilch as a 4-year old. I definitely saw Poseidon Adventure in the theater at a friend's birthday party when I was 5 (although I probably spent 33% of it in the lobby scared out of my mind). So, Star Wars in 1977 would be where I started collecting John Williams with the 8-Track Cassette version. My first JW LP was Superman, given to us as part of a charity screening for my cousin's school, which was held at Warner Bros. What a glorious Saturday morning that was. It was the first movie I ever saw that started without previews (given it was at the studio theater). 2+ hours later, I believed a man could fly. We then had lunch in Hollywood on the way back from Burbank and ran into my school friend Tony Hooper. He had a Superman pin which he gave to me (and I still have) - he had just seen the movie at a screening as well. (I met his dad, Tobe, too, but I did not know he was a film director let alone would be making Poltergeist in a few years.) Probably I had the LA Phil Star Wars-CE3K recording around then and the Gerhardt suites too. My real active collecting came in 1980. For my Bar Mitzvah, family friends gave me a record/cassette/radio all-in-one unit with speakers. These were promptly wired all the way around my room along the ceiling and the speakers mounted high in my room. Those speakers are still there! Along with the hardware, I was also given a $100 gift certificate to Warehouse Records. The Empire Strikes Back was amongst the albums I got that day. I think I bought Jaws as well. So, how long have been at this? I guess you can round up to 50 years if you go back to Fiddler, but really I would say 45 years given that I actively lobbied my parents to buy that 8-track of Star Wars. And then to play it endlessly in the car. Bayesian, Falstaft, GerateWohl and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandor 797 Posted August 28, 2022 Author Share Posted August 28, 2022 8 minutes ago, lairdo said: Thanks, @Sandor, for kicking off the thread. And congrats on 30 years! Your collection looks amazing. For sure my family had Fiddler on the Roof - cannot remember if that was ours or my grandparents' - but we had it and I played it. Of course, my awareness of John Williams was zilch as a 4-year old. I definitely saw Poseidon Adventure in the theater at a friend's birthday party when I was 5 (although I probably spent 33% of it in the lobby scared out of my mind). So, Star Wars in 1977 would be where I started collecting John Williams with the 8-Track Cassette version. My first JW LP was Superman, given to us as part of a charity screening for my cousin's school, which was held at Warner Bros. What a glorious Saturday morning that was. It was the first movie I ever saw that started without previews (given it was at the studio theater). 2+ hours later, I believed a man could fly. We then had lunch in Hollywood on the way back from Burbank and ran into my school friend Tony Hooper. He had a Superman pin which he gave to me (and I still have) - he had just seen the movie at a screening as well. (I met his dad, Tobe, too, but I did not know he was a film director let alone would be making Poltergeist in a few years.) Probably I had the LA Phil Star Wars-CE3K recording around then and the Gerhardt suites too. My real active collecting came in 1980. For my Bar Mitzvah, family friends gave me a record/cassette/radio all-in-one unit with speakers. These were promptly wired all the way around my room along the ceiling and the speakers mounted high in my room. Those speakers are still there! Along with the hardware, I was also given a $100 gift certificate to Warehouse Records. The Empire Strikes Back was amongst the albums I got that day. I think I bought Jaws as well. So, how long have been at this? I guess you can round up to 50 years if you go back to Fiddler, but really I would say 45 years given that I actively lobbied my parents to buy that 8-track of Star Wars. And then to play it endlessly in the car. Thanks for sharing! lairdo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlastoEls 563 Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 1 hour ago, Sandor said: In a couple of months, I'll be celebrating my '30th…’! What a wonderful post! Sandor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toillion 215 Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 Wow that’s pretty awesome! I think my first JW purchase came around 2018. That’s about a year after I graduated from college and finally had some money to spend on the things I loved. I’ve collected 61 releases since then and attended one concert. Sandor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuartalHarmony 543 Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 I bought (or, more likely, asked my mum to buy for me) the Feank Barber NPO recording of Star Wars, CE3K and ET on cassette from, I’m guessing, 1982 or 83, so I must be on my 40th anniversary. I notice the vinyl of that release next to your ET vinyil, @Sandor! I didn’t build on this purchase, though, until I bought the Polydor SW and ROTJ on CD in late 1981. ESB was basically unavailable in the UK until the 93 box set. Likewise most of the Indy scores. Mark Sandor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bespin 8,484 Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 (trying to calculate how many years) I NEED ANOTHER DRINK. OH WHAT DID I SAW??? Sandor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Martinland 360 Posted August 28, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted August 28, 2022 As has been said already: Thank you for this post! I suddenly realised it has been 30 years for me as well: Around this time of the year, 30 years ago, a soulmate if mine introduced me to the wonderful world of John Williams via his LP collection, and soon after I was exploring on my own. I still maintain this enormous binder full of articles, reviews, and pictures of John Williams as well as our travels to several concerts to this day... GlastoEls, Sandor and Falstaft 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom 4,672 Posted August 29, 2022 Share Posted August 29, 2022 My first JW album was the Utah Symphony Star Wars Trilogy. I think I bought it in 1992, along with a compilation of music from the first four ST films. So, I guess I am 30 years into this as well--that is crazy. Thank you for triggering my memory. It was crazy over the next several years realizing that JW composed so much of the music that I had like during my early childhood. Pre-internet days were different. I still remember a day from my junior year in high school. I was in band, and we had finished our spring concert. So, basically, we screwed around for the last week of the semester. The band director disliked me (which in retrospect is all on me). Anyway, I brought that CD to school and the band room had a really nice audio system with a CD player. I was blasting SW through it. The band director immediately came out of his office, walked over to the player, and just as I was expected him to turn it off and reprimand me, he adjusted the equalizer to better bring out the bass. Great memory. Sandor and Falstaft 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy 4,141 Posted August 29, 2022 Share Posted August 29, 2022 What an absolutely delightful post! Did you paint the mural on the wall? Sandor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rough cut 1,714 Posted August 29, 2022 Share Posted August 29, 2022 Amazing! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 I like how you’ve arranged them (compilations, soundtracks, re-recordings - and all chronological (more or less) from what I can see)! I bought John Williams Conducts John Williams: The Star Wars Trilogy (The Skywalker Symphony Orchestra) in London in 1993. So I guess my 30th is coming up next year! Sandor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Sandor 797 Posted August 29, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 29, 2022 1 hour ago, Andy said: What an absolutely delightful post! Did you paint the mural on the wall? Thanks! My brother painted the mural years ago. On the other side of the same room he started a bigger one, which he still wants to finish one day. Arnaud2, Falstaft, BB-8 and 3 others 3 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy 4,141 Posted August 29, 2022 Share Posted August 29, 2022 How cool is that! Sandor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandor 797 Posted August 29, 2022 Author Share Posted August 29, 2022 10 minutes ago, rough cut said: Amazing! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 I like how you’ve arranged them (compilations, soundtracks, re-recordings - and all chronological (more or less) from what I can see)! I bought John Williams Conducts John Williams: The Star Wars Trilogy (The Skywalker Symphony Orchestra) in London in 1993. So I guess my 30th is coming up next year! Thank you! I tried to arrange them chronologically, but I may have misplaced some pre-Jaws era. rough cut 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rough cut 1,714 Posted August 29, 2022 Share Posted August 29, 2022 You did an amazing job, couldn’t have done it better myself. And it’s an amazing collection, it makes me happy to see it!!! Sandor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bayesian 1,364 Posted August 29, 2022 Share Posted August 29, 2022 Phenomenal collection, @Sandor! I couldn't help notice that lovely Annie Leibovitz photo of JW sitting on a stool in a scoring stage -- what issue of Vanity Fair was that, if you don't mind my asking? I'd like to try to track that down. Sandor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandor 797 Posted August 29, 2022 Author Share Posted August 29, 2022 1 hour ago, Bayesian said: Phenomenal collection, @Sandor! I couldn't help notice that lovely Annie Leibovitz photo of JW sitting on a stool in a scoring stage -- what issue of Vanity Fair was that, if you don't mind my asking? I'd like to try to track that down. Thank you! I will try to find out in what issue it was published. The picture was taken January 2001 and has Spielberg captured as well. https://ru.pinterest.com/pin/dynamic-duo-stephen-spielberg-left-and-john-williams-right-photographed-at-sony-pictures-stud--418553359111606844/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bayesian 1,364 Posted August 29, 2022 Share Posted August 29, 2022 12 minutes ago, Sandor said: Thank you! I will try to find out in what issue it was published. EDIT: It might have been January 2001 https://ru.pinterest.com/pin/dynamic-duo-stephen-spielberg-left-and-john-williams-right-photographed-at-sony-pictures-stud--418553359111606844/?amp_client_id=CLIENT_ID(_)&mweb_unauth_id={{default.session}}&simplified=true I feel like it’d have to be an issue from a few months later, as the photo was taken in January ‘01 but it would take several weeks to fit it into the editorial content of an issue and then get it printed. No need to prioritize that for me or anything! It’s enjoyment enough to see a fellow JW connoisseur and read about how this great man accompanied your life for 3 decades now and counting. On 28/8/2022 at 11:55 AM, lairdo said: Thanks, @Sandor, for kicking off the thread. And congrats on 30 years! Your collection looks amazing. For sure my family had Fiddler on the Roof - cannot remember if that was ours or my grandparents' - but we had it and I played it. Of course, my awareness of John Williams was zilch as a 4-year old. I definitely saw Poseidon Adventure in the theater at a friend's birthday party when I was 5 (although I probably spent 33% of it in the lobby scared out of my mind). So, Star Wars in 1977 would be where I started collecting John Williams with the 8-Track Cassette version. My first JW LP was Superman, given to us as part of a charity screening for my cousin's school, which was held at Warner Bros. What a glorious Saturday morning that was. It was the first movie I ever saw that started without previews (given it was at the studio theater). 2+ hours later, I believed a man could fly. We then had lunch in Hollywood on the way back from Burbank and ran into my school friend Tony Hooper. He had a Superman pin which he gave to me (and I still have) - he had just seen the movie at a screening as well. (I met his dad, Tobe, too, but I did not know he was a film director let alone would be making Poltergeist in a few years.) Probably I had the LA Phil Star Wars-CE3K recording around then and the Gerhardt suites too. My real active collecting came in 1980. For my Bar Mitzvah, family friends gave me a record/cassette/radio all-in-one unit with speakers. These were promptly wired all the way around my room along the ceiling and the speakers mounted high in my room. Those speakers are still there! Along with the hardware, I was also given a $100 gift certificate to Warehouse Records. The Empire Strikes Back was amongst the albums I got that day. I think I bought Jaws as well. So, how long have been at this? I guess you can round up to 50 years if you go back to Fiddler, but really I would say 45 years given that I actively lobbied my parents to buy that 8-track of Star Wars. And then to play it endlessly in the car. @lairdo, I loved your story too! Pretty fun how your collection habit started literally in the crucible of Hollywood moviemaking—not many folks are likely ever to be able to say that! Sandor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post lairdo 726 Posted August 30, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted August 30, 2022 5 hours ago, Bayesian said: @lairdo, I loved your story too! Pretty fun how your collection habit started literally in the crucible of Hollywood moviemaking—not many folks are likely ever to be able to say that! Thank you! Yeah, pretty lucky. My parents were not in the biz, but I had school friend with parents which were. We had family in from Philly once, and we must have seen 3 famous actors at dinner at a rib joint we liked, and our friends were going nuts. We were like "it's a quiet night." Not sure my parents were really that blasé, but they did not want my sister and me to think of those people as anything other than fellow people. Pretty cool lesson, really. That being said, meeting John Williams a couple of times was definitely a highlight of my history. This image is from 2013 during the renaming of the USC Scoring Stage; it was moved from Steven Spielberg's to JW's as an 80th gift from Steven and George Lucas. I have an autographed copy that JW's agent got signed for me. JTN, Bayesian, Sandor and 5 others 6 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Sandor 797 Posted December 20, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 20, 2023 I took a picture of the additions to my collection after the pictures posted in the first post were taken. Edmilson, JTN, Raiders of the SoundtrArk and 2 others 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BB-8 3,483 Posted December 22, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted December 22, 2023 This thread made me feel nostalgic about the past 43 years of my own fandom (from Star Wars through DOD) while at the same time it seems surreal how much things have intensified over the past couple of years thanks to JW's appearances in Europe, the multitude of recent releases/editions (old and new) and this very forum! Sandor, JTN and Martinland 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTN 2,046 Posted December 22, 2023 Share Posted December 22, 2023 1. How did you steal my collection?! 2. Congrats on your 30th Anniversary! (now 31st) 3. My first soundtrack CD purchase was Sony Classical’s “John Williams Conducts John Williams: The Star Wars Trilogy”. And 1993 was the year I bought it. It could mean that that point in time inherently contains some sort of cosmic significance. Almost as if it were the temporal junction point for the entire space-time continuum. On the other hand, it could just be an amazing coincidence. Sandor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB-8 3,483 Posted December 22, 2023 Share Posted December 22, 2023 @Sandor I skipped this one: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom 4,672 Posted December 22, 2023 Share Posted December 22, 2023 33 minutes ago, JTW said: 1. How did you steal my collection?! Well, do you remember taking this call, but no one was on the line? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandor 797 Posted December 22, 2023 Author Share Posted December 22, 2023 2 hours ago, BB-8 said: @Sandor I skipped this one: Me too..! Didn’t even know it existed..! 🙈 BB-8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Martinland 360 Posted December 22, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted December 22, 2023 Very nice thread, this! <3 In addition to the Anthology and Close Encounters ads and various German ones I also have this in my Williams binder that I have been maintaining for more than 30 years now and that some of you saw when you added one of the last pages with all your autographs on the Milano programme (<3): P.S.: Oh my, this belongs in the Star Wars Anthology thread - I just duplicated it there, sorry, too much seasonal beverages GerateWohl, BB-8, Taikomochi and 2 others 1 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlastoEls 563 Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 On 22/12/2023 at 8:07 PM, Martinland said: Very nice thread, this! <3 In addition to the Anthology and Close Encounters ads and various German ones I also have this in my Williams binder that I have been maintaining for more than 30 years now and that some of you saw when you added one of the last pages with all your autographs on the Milano programme (<3): P.S.: Oh my, this belongs in the Star Wars Anthology thread - I just duplicated it there, sorry, too much seasonal beverages I loved seeing that in Milan. Sometime, give me two hours, a nice drink, my reading glasses and a comfy chair to really look at it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Know 326 Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 I have been at this a long, long time, going back to the 1970s, but I have to say that 2023 has turned out to be the best year of collecting, thanks to all of the new archival releases. And it certainly ended in the most spectacular fashion with the releases of HOOK, HEIDI, and JANE EYRE. Wow! Sandor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinland 360 Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 15 hours ago, GlastoEls said: I loved seeing that in Milan. Sometime, give me two hours, a nice drink, my reading glasses and a comfy chair to really look at it! If you wish for that I might do this ... heavy hand luggage though. I very much enjoyed meeting (both of) you in London, finally. 9 hours ago, Dr. Know said: I have been at this a long, long time, going back to the 1970s GlastoEls 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alawill75 39 Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 Thank you for this post, Sandor. Time flies like an arrow, and it's about 30 years for myself after seeing "Born on the 4th of July" in cinema and falling in love with the wonderful Trumpet Solo and String Sound. Shortly after I got a copy of Star Wars on Tape and realized that this was the same composer. The journey started from there, living in a small town in Austria without an adequat CD-shop for Film Music, and - of course - no internet. About 1 - 2 years later I went to Paris with some friends and visited the "Virgin Megastore" at the Champs-Elysees. I was in heaven I spent too much money there (for me beeing about 16 years old) and took about 10 CDs home by train... Since then, I saw JW live in Tanglewood in 2003 and in Vienna in 2020 and could not imagine a life without the music of this genius. On 28/08/2022 at 10:34 PM, Bespin said: (trying to calculate how many years) I NEED ANOTHER DRINK. OH WHAT DID I SAW??? BTW, not sure if I got this right... Is there anything special about "Goodbye, Mr. Chips"? Sandor and JTN 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,373 Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 It's the only specialty label JW CD he doesn't have physically Bespin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bespin 8,484 Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 This new year is off to a rough start! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arnaud2 10 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Beautiful photos, congratulations! 46 years of collecting John Williams here. First purchase: Star Wars single in the fall of 77 when the film was released in France. Then the double LP at Xmas. It’s been quite a ride since. This man has really brightened our lives, hasn’t he? Sandor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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