I was 14 when it came out and typical of goings on in my family, my big brother bought it the day it was released, I think he'd ordered it.....what can I say, completely gobsmacked with it, LP's normally got released on Friday in the UK and Im sure it was Friday and we had all weekend to look, listen and inwardly digest
Remember it had been a long time since the last album and we all knew they had been working on this for months, but when it came it was better than any of us had expected, a wonderful surreal experience....absolutely a brilliant and magical time, even the cover with all its colours seemed magical, everything seemed to have been black & white forever, suddenly it was summer and this beautiful gift arrived..........in some ways it was THE most influential thing Ive ever experienced........pure magic, you indeed had to be around at the time to realize why people say its their greatest album, the effect it had was catatonic.
Anyway Monday eventually came and big bro went to work, I got home from school at 3:30 after bragging to a few schoolmates that I had bought it
, they a couple of them actually followed me home so I ended up playing the album for them while they drooled at the cover.......Great days indeed.